/ 


TUFTS  UNIVERSITY   LIBRARIES 


3   9090  013  408  683 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 
Cummings  School  of  Veterinary  iVIedicine  at 
Tufts  University 
200  Westboro  Road 
North  Grafton,  MA  01 536 


G 


We^aAay  dro'Ui 


THE 


HORSE'S  RESCUE. 


BY 


GERARD     DOAN, 

FOE   FOaTY-GNE   YEAKS   A    WOttKEtt  ON  THE   HORSE. 


"  I  don't   go   much   on    religion, 

For  I  never  liavo  Jiad  any  sliow, 
But  I've  p:ot  a  mighty  tight  grip  oa 
The  tow  things  that  I  know." 


*4fe4r%4i^ 


NEW  YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY  THE  AUTHOR. 

1882. 


^/vS 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Conp:ress  in  the  year  1882,  • 
By  GERARD  DOAN, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

Of  course  all  scientific  men  of  advanced  and  devel- 
oped minds  well  know  it  is  necessary  to  have  refer- 
ences in  order  to  introduce  any  great  science  with 
success ;  and  at  this  daj  it  requires  noted  men,  men 
of  good  standing,  men  of  honor,  men  that  have  been 
tried,  men  that  are  located  and  well  established,  in 
order  for  references  to  carry  an}'-  influence  with 
them.  There  have  been  all  kinds  of  humbugs,  as 
they  are  called  by  some.  The  people  have  been  duped 
in  so  many  ways  that  it  has  become  almost  impossible 
to  introduce  a  good  thing ;  and  after  reading  this  work 
through  you  will  be  convinced  of  that  fact.  In  this 
work  there  has  been  but  a  very  small  part  told.  The 
financiering  necessary  in  order  to  make  a  center  or 
focus  of  this  great  science,  and  to  get  it  introduced 
in  some  great  center  of  science,  where  we  could  get 
reliable  and  scientific  men  for  references — men  that 
were  known  all  over  the  world  nearly — for  this  science 
extends  round  the  wide  worJd,  everywhere  the  horse 
has  ever  had  his  feet  ironed.  After  many  years  of 
hard  labor  this  was  accomplished.  This  firm  is  known 
as  D.  M.  Osborn  k  Co.,  with  which  the  well-known 
inventors  and  scientific  men  are  connected,  Cyrenus 
Wheeler,  Mr.  Kirby,  and  0.  H.  Burdick.  Such  men 
as  these  are  not  going  to  give  themselves  away  by 
allowing   their   names   to   be  used   to   back   up  any 


INTRODUCTORY. 


science  without  knowing  what  they  are  about.  They 
nil  liave  liad  and  seen  this  woi'k  done  and  watclied  the 
result,  and  many  others  in  Auburn  city.  This  is 
where  this  2:reat  center  of  science  is  located  of  D.  M. 
Osborn  &  Co.;  this  is  where  tlie  great  center  of  tliis 
horse  science  is  now  well  established,  and  this  is  to  be 
one  of  the  great  centers;  this,  too,  must,  like  all  other 
businesses,  in  order  to  be  successful,  be  systematized 
and  introduced  on  the  principles  of  science.  I  could 
give  you  scores  of  names  to  back  this  work  up — some 
are  many  miles- away,  and  some  hundreds,  where 
I  have  worked  and  my  brothers  in  different  places  on 
the  horse.  That  is  not  necessary,  as  Auburn  city  is 
to  be  the  center.  I  will  give  you  a  few  men's  names 
that  will  be  worth  more  than  a  score  of  some,  and 
here  they  are. 

After  vou  read  this  work  carefullv  through,  and 
look  at  your  horse,  you  can  easily  see  how  this  all  is.  I 
could  get  hundreds  of  names  to  put  in  this  work,  if  it 
was  the  biggest  humbug  that  was  ever  written,  by  ask- 
ing them.  To  prove  this  work  to  be  a  valuable  one, 
test  it ;  then  you  will  know  ;  you  always  will  be  in  the 
dark  unless  you  do.  The  trouble  is  and  always  has 
been  that  nearly  all  have  learned  this  science  out 
of  selfish  motives ;  they  would  keep  it  all  to  them- 
selves in  order  to  make  money  fast  out  of  it.  This  is 
not  my  intention.  I  want  all  to  know  how  this  work 
is  done.  I  will  show  and  teach  all  mankind.  If  I 
would  not  be  willing  to  do  this,  this  book  is  wrongly 
named.  This  book  is  the  teacher.  I  do  not  know  as 
I  can  work  on  the  horse  much  more.  My  health  is 
failing  fast;  persecution  and  abuse  have  had  something 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

to  do  with  its  failing.     I  will  go  back  to  my  bo3^hood 
days  and  show  you  where  I  and  all  others  must  begin. 

The  first  mechanical  work  I  ever  did  in  my  life 

Was  to  make  a  sled  out  of  shingles,  my  tool  was  a  jackknife. 

With  a  rickety  knife  I  borfid  the  runners  through, 

It  was  all  the  tool  I  had,  'twas  the  best  that  I  could  do. 

The  next  job  for  me  to  see  what  luck  I  would  have  to  make 
A  small  bundle  of  ax-helves  T  would  undertake; 
Of  course  these  were  all  small  children's  toys — 
I  was  just  like  all  other  children  and  little  boys. 

I  made  small  ships,  sloops,  and  every  kind  of  boat ; 
In  my  mother's  rainwater  trough  I  set  them  afloat,; 
After  a  while  I  traded  off  some  of  my  toys, 
And  got  a  gimlet  of  one  of  the  neighbors'  boys. 

Then  I  must  make  a  sled  that  would  be  of  use  of  boards 
With  this  gimlet  the  lioles  tlirough  the  runners  I  bored ; 
There  must  be  more  tools  added  to  my  kit, 
I  cannot  make  the  holes  la?^  enough  with  this  gimlet  bit. 

These  holes  in  these  runners  must  bigger  be. 
Or  it  will  not  be  strong  enough  to  hold  up  me ; 
These  holes  must  be  made  bigger  by  running  a  hot  iron  through- 
It  must  be  made  strong  enough  to  hold  up  two. 

After  making  several  sleds  in  this  way 
They  did  not  suit.     They  had  to  be  repaired  every  day. 
They  were  poor  and  rickety  things  at  the  best — 
Were  soon  all  in  pieces,  but  a  few  days  they'd  last. 

On  this  sled  business  there  must  be  some  improvement  made; 
Some  of  us  boys  will  get  hurt  with  these  sleds,  I  am  afraid. 
They  must  have  the  beams  cut  in  the  top  like  a  dove's  tail, 
And  a  board  put  all  over  the  top  and  all  solid  nail. 

This  proved  safer  and  a  great  deal  better  to  be, 

Now  two  could  ride  in  safetj^,  sometimes  three. 

I  had  learned  quite  a  good  deal  at  the  sleigh-making  trade 

When  tlus  improvement  on  my  sleiglis  I  iiad  made. 


8         —  -  INTRODUCTORY. 

The  next  improvement  was  frame  with  pin  beams, 
Like  those  3-ou  see  drawn  around  with  ox  teams. 
Next  I  made  wlih  mortise  and  tenon,  beam,  and  knee, 
Qiute  a  sleigli  maker  I  was  getting  to  be. 

"Wagons  and  carts  I  made  and  improved  in  ^Jiis  way, 

And  some  had  to  be  repaired  nearly  every  day. 

If  any  of  these  wagons  or  sleighs  should  happen  to  break 

They  would  come  10  me  for  repairs  or  new  ones  I  must  make. 

I  had  quite  a  business  in  that  line  and  trade ; 

I  made  the  girls  and  boys  happy — no  charges  I  made. 

It  was  plenty  pay  enough  for  me  them  to  sec. 

After  I  had  got  their  work  done,  how  happy  they  would  be! 

There  were  trades  of  other  kinds  I  was  learning  too — 

Of  my  mother  T  learned  to  knit,  mend,  and  sew. 

My  mother  has  got  feather  tick  pillows  I  made  the  first  I  learned  to 

sew, 
Them  I  made  for  her  over  forty-five  years  ago. 

Shirts,  pants,  vests,  and  all  kinds  in  that  line  of  trade, 
"When  I  was  a  small  boy  I  repaired  and  n&W  1  made; 
Pants  and  vest  I  cut  and  other  garments,  and  made  them  too, 
To  cut  and  make  a  coat  that  I  never  tried  to  do. 

To  know  how  to  do  this  work  has  been  of  use  to  me— 

I  could  mend  my  own  clothes  no  nnatter  where  I  would  be; 

I  have  been  where  I  have  mended  other's  while  to  bed  they  had  to  go, 

For  this  reason — they  tliemselves  did  not  know  how  to  sew. 

The  cap  trade  I  took  up— I  had  lots  of  little  brothers;  they  did  »  « 

surround. 
I  must  make  them  some  caps.     For  foundation  I  used  old  straw  hats' 

crown. 
The  first  I  made  was  round  on  top,  covered  with  green, 
Cut  goring  with  a  button  on  top.     It  was  the  funniest  cap  ever  was 

seen. 

The  next  cap  I  made  the  foundation  on  top  was  flat 
Of  course  T  had  to  make  my  work  to  fit  that. 
The  cloth  that  I  made  it  of  was  dark  blue. 
That  was  a  nicer  color,  and  the  'style  was  better  too. 


INTRODUCTOIiy.  9 

These  caps  the  front  piece  was  made  of  old  boot  le^, 
Each  one  covered  with  the  same  cloth  it  was  made. 
These  caps  -were  both  lined  with  different  colors  too; 
They  were  very  good  caps — it  was  then  the  best  J  could  do. 

The  shoemakers  trade  I  must  try  that  work  to  do. 
No  lasts  I  had ;  them  first  I  will  have  to  make  too. 
The  children's  feet  all  vary  in  many  different  degree, 
And  1  must  liav  a  pair  that  will  fit  me. 

In  an  old  woodshed  these  lasts  wore  made 
With  an  ax  and  an  old  jackknife  blade ; 
"With  my  gimlet  I  bored  the  holes  through 
To  make  a  place  to  pull  the  last  out  of  the  shoe. 

A  string  I  tied  in  the  hole  to  pull  out  the  last, 

For  sometimes  I  would  get  my  shoes  all  pegged  fast 

I  got  along  very  well  for  a  while  in  this  way  ; 

1  would  like*  to  hav  a  hook  to  pull  the  last — sometime  I  may. 

My  pegging  awl  and  pegs  them  I  all  made  » 

"When  I  commenced  first  to  work  at  the  shoemaker's  trade, 
After  my  kit  and  stock  all  rigged  I  had  got. 
In  my  father's  old  kitchen  1  opened  my  shop. 

My  father  had  a  large  family.     There  was  always  leather  round, 
Go  up  garret  at  any  time  there  it  could  bo  found, 
"With  five  or  six  little  brothers  all  gathered  around  me. 
How  tins  work  was  going  to  be  done  they  all  wanted  to  see. 

Thiough  the    course  of  the  day  I  had  made  some  progress  at  this 

trade — 
I  had  repaired  several  pair  of  shoes — no  charges  I  mader 
As  we  sat  m  front  of  the  old  fireplace  in  a  half  circle  round, 
My  father  was  a  chopper.     He  came  in  with  his  ax  and  with  us  sat 

down. 

My  father  was  as  hard  working  man  as  ever  you  see,  ^ 

He  soon  had  his  lap  full  of  children — two  on  each  knee. 
After  working  all  day  in  the  woods  in  the  cold, 
All  the  evening  this  lap  full  of  children  he  would  hold. 


10  INTRODUCTORY, 

The  children  gathered  round  hira,  showed  hun  the  woric  I  had  done. 
He  said  to  me,  If  you  can  do  as  well  as  that  you  had  better  keep  on. 
This  of  course  encouraged  and  very  much  pleased  me, 
My  work  was  bein^  appreciated  by  him,  I  could  see. 

My  father  was  a  good  farmer — all  kinds  of  that  work  he  understood^ — 
And  all  the  work  he  did  he  always  did  good. 

His  word  could  always  be  relied  on  no  matter  where  he  would  be; 
An  honester,  kmder- hearted  man  no  man  ever  see. 

My  father  never  tried  much  mechanical  work  to  do — 
Make  beetles,  his  ox  sleds  with  wood  he  could  shoe. 
To  dress  a  beef  or  hog,  and  all  worlc  of  that  kind, 
No  better  man  for  that  in  the  country  could  they  find. 

He  always  had  something  every  day  to  do, 

No  matter  how  cold,  how  much  the  snow  and  wind  blew. 

For  him  to  work  there  was  never  a  day  too  cold. 

And  this  he  kept  up  until  he  was  very  old. 

He  kept  right  on  one  steady  course,  you  can  see, 

As  pro*vider  for  liis  family  no  better  could  be. 

Through  cold  winds  and  drifting  snow,  out  all  day  in  the  cold, 

Nights  in  this  half  circle  a  lap  full  of  children  he  would  hold. 

I  was  next  oldest  of  this  large  family  of  boys; 
I  had  plenty  of  work  all  of  the  time  to  keep  them  in  toys; 
There  was  eleven  boys  in  this  family  grew  up  to  be  men; 
Seven  boys  first,  then  two  girls,  then  boys  again. 

There  were  two  boys  that  died  when  they  were  quite  young. 
I  assure  you  to  support  this  family,  some  work  had  to  be  done. 
A  truer  and  better  man  in  a  family  than  my  father  could  not  be^ 
How  he  carried  this  heavy  load  has  always  puzzled  me. 

It  was  all  done  by  hard  knocks,  the  sweat  of  the  brow ; 

If  you  want  to  know  how  it  was  done,  ask  him ;  he  can  tell  you  how. 

My  father  was  a  large,  powerful,  strong-built  man ; 

To  do  better  work,  and  more  in  a  day,  very  few  can. 

He  supported  his  own  family,  and  helped  others  too. 
And  this,  wlierever  he  could^  he  was  always  ready  to  do. 


INTRODUCTORY.'  IT 

I  have  seen  him  on  trees  chopping,  that  was  four  feet  through ; 

All  aloue,  coat,  vest,  and  liat  off,  no  matter  how  hard  the  wind  blew. 

And  this,  too,  after  he  had  got  to  be  quite  old. 

I  never  heard  him  say,  I  cannot  go  to  the  woods  to-day,  it  is  too 

cold. 
Day  after  day  to  the  woods  to  chop  he  would  go, 
And  his  hair  had  got  to  be  now  as  white  as  the  snow. 

And  at  night  he  would  by  this  old  fireplace  sit  down, 
"With  his  children  help  form  a  half  circle  around. 
First  there  must  be  a  big  back-log  put  on, 
And  that  too  he  almost  invariably  done. 

I  have  thought  what  fools  on  this  earth  some  folks  must  be ; 

Such  a  man  as  that  his  worth  they  cannot  see.  ' 

He  would  work  early  and  late,  and  it  was  not  for  gold ; 

He  would  suffer  himself  to  feed  and  shelter  others  from  the  cold 

My  poor  father  passed  away  many  years  ago. 

Whether  he  will  be  rewarded  in  the  next  life  I  do  not  know. 

I  would  as  lief  take  his  chance  as  any  man  I  ever  see. 

To  be  a  better  man  than  he  was  I  can't  see  how  it  could  be. 

The  course  he  took,  it  always  seemed  right  to  me ; 
And  never  in  life  did  he  and  I  ever  disagree. 
We  did  business  together  for  a  very  long  time ; 
A  more  honorable,  honest  man  no  man  can  find. 

To  forget  my  father,  that  will  be  impossible  to  be. 
His  life  must  always  be  stamped  indelible  with  me; 
And  after  I  pass  from  this  life,  if  him  I  do  not  see, 
In  the  next  life,  heaven  will  be  no  heaven  to  me. 

When  I  was  a  small  boy,  to  help  my  father  I  would  try; 
I  would  make  him  some  ax-helves,  them  he  all  had  to  buy, 
I  made  a  lot,  put  them  up  garret  in  a  barrel  to  dry ; 
There  is  no  telling  what  a  boy  can  do  if  he  \vill  try. 

My  father  used  up  many  ax-helves,  you  must  know; 
There  was  many  ways  they  would  give,  and  sometimes  by  a  misblow. 
This  stock  of  ax- helves  I  did  not  show  him  or  have  them  around; 
They  were  not  dry  yet,  in  a  short  time  them  I  see  he  had  found. 


12  INTRODUCTORT. 

Them  T  see  were  going  to  be  of  use  and  help  to  him, 

Then  making  ax-helves  I  went  at  it  again. 

Of  these  I  kept  on  hand  a  small  supply, 

AVhile  my  helves  could  be  found  in  the  barrel  no  helves  would  he  buy. 

Somewhere  about  this  time  I  went  to  learn  the  blacksmith  trade : 
At  that  time  I  was  about  fourteen  years  of  age , 
To  go  to  work  at  that  busmess  my  father  opposed  it  some; 
That  is  very  hard  business,  I  am  afraid  you  are  too  young. 

I  was  very  anxious  to  learn  a  trade,  some  place  to  find 

To  learn  the  blacksmith  trade,  T  had  not  thought  of,  that  was  not  the 

kind. 
The  carpenter's  trade,  when  I  was  a  boy,  was- what  I  wanted  to  learn. 
It  is  curious  sometimes  how  quick  our  course  is  turned. 
• 
At  this  at  first  I  commenced  on  a  very  small  scale. 

The  first  thing  I  tried  to  make  was  a  horse  nail. 

Small  hammers,  jewsharps,  hooks  to  catch  the  trout^  I  made. 

Repaired  old  gun-locks,  put  in  tubes  and  jackknife  blades. 

Of  this  kind  of  work  I  always  had  some  on  hand  to  do. 

In  order  to  learn  this  trade  I  must  always  be  trying  something  new. 

To  make  a  gun,  that,  too,  I  must  try  and  see  if  could  make. 

I  got  along  very  well,  all  but  the  mainspring,  that  would  break. 

Several  locks  for  this  gun  I  made,  all  new ; 

The  mainspring  would  break,  the  very  best  I  could  do. 

How  many  springs  I  made,  of  course  I  do  not  know ; 

There  was  a  great  many :  every  time  I  tried  them,  clung  they  would  ga 

I  learned  in  springs  the  temper  must  very  low  be. 

After  making  and  breaking  many  you  can  see, 

And  the  steel  varies  to  a  very  great  degree. 

That,  too.  I  did  not  know  at  that  time;  thai  bothered  me. 

I  did  learn  after  a  long  time  these  sprmgs  to  make. 
And  could  do  it  very  quick,  and  they  would  not  break. 
No  receipt  can  be  laid  down  that  is  good  for  tempering  steel; 
In  all  degrees  steel  varies  quite  a  great  deal. 

Many  different  kinds  of  mechanical  work  I  have  tried  to  do; 
The  art  of  taking  likenesses,  that  I  have  worked  at  U)0. 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

At  the  time  when  the  chemicals  we  all  made, 

I  did  not  work  at  that  long,  I  did  not  hke  that  trade. 

For  many  reasons,  of  them  I  will  give  you  a  few; 

They  all  wanted  me  to  make  handsome  pictures,  that  I  could  not  do. 

There  always  would  be  a  lot  standing  or  sitting  a^ound: 

Find  fault  with  these  pictures  they  would,  or  the  background. 

They  all  wanted  a  handsome  picture,  all  the  same,  young  and  old. 
A  good  likeness  of  themselves  was  quite  hard  to  be  sold. 
Ko  matter  how  dark  the  sitter  was,  they  all  must  be  white; 
To  suit  them  they  must  be  nearly  burned  up  with  the  light. 

Then  they  must  all  be  painted,  and  colored  up,  too; 
Unless  they  were  daubed  in  this  way  they  would  not  do. 
I  got  tired  of  taking  good  pictures  to  spoil  in  this  way, 
About  that  kind  of  business  I  shall  have  qo  more  to  say. 

A  carriage  I  can  make ;  iron,  pamt,  stripe,  and  trim  it,  too. 
Houses  I  have  painted  and  worked  on ;  some  I  have  built  new. 
The  mason  trade,  I  never  did  much  of  that  kind. 
To  be  a  good  mason,  it  wants  some  practice,  I  find. 

I  have  plastered  and  laid  quite  a  good  deal  of  stone  wall ; 
To  build  a  chimney  of  brick,  that  stuck  me  the  worst  of  alL 
To  build  a  nice  chimney,  it  is  quite  a  knack  to  do ; 
To  have  the  brick  all  lie  level  and  carry  it  up  true. 

To  build  only  one  brick  chimney  in  my  life  did  I  try, 

And  that  was  all  daubed  and  winding  before  it  was  two  feet  high. 

I  could  not  keep  it  true,  do  the  best  I  could  do, 

So  I  plastered  it  inside  and  out ;  the  smoke  could  get  through. 

To  know  how  to  do  this  work  has  always  been  of  use  to  mo. 
There  was  always  some  work  to  do,  no  matter  where  I  would  bo. 
It  all  kept  me  busy,  and  I  was  learning,  too. 
What  does  r.  man  amount  to  with  nothing  to  do  ? 

Nearly  all  of  these  trades  I  dropped  oif,  one  by  one ; 
Some  I  dropped  off  many  years  ago,  when  I  was  quite  young. 
The  horses'  feet  nearly  all  of  my  life  I  have  worked  ou, 
And  at  that  yet  I  have  not  got  done. 


14  INTRODUCTORY. 

Nearly  all  kinds  of  saws,  them  I  liave  worked  on,  too; 
To  make  a  saw,  that  I  never  tried  to  do. 
I  have  tiled,  set,  gummed,  and  re-tecthed  some  new; 
Circulars  to  work  on  is  quite  a  science,  and  keep  them  true. 

Not  much  work  did  I  ever  do  at  the  harness  trade, 
Only  repair ;  once  a  bridle,  martingales,  circingle  I  made. 
At  the  machinist  business,  that,  too,  I  have  turned  my  hand; 
The  principles  to  do  that  work  on  T  quite  well  understand. 

If  you  want  to  make  a  machine,  and  have  it  good  work  do, 
From  the  center  you  must  work,  and  make  all  true. 
One  great  center  you  must  liave,  that  you  ought  to  know, 
And  all  must  run  iu  harmony,  or  to  pieces  it  will  go. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  horse,  if  you  will  look  }'ou  can  see, 
For  him  to  move  well,  in  harmony  of  action  all  must  be. 
On  him  for  many  years  I  have  spent  nearly  all  of  my  time, 
For  he  needs  help,  he  is  a  great  sufferer,  I  find. 

There  are  a  great  many  kinds  of  work  I  have  done  and  understock. 
Of  course  T  had  learned  something  before  I  could  write  a  book. 
The  science  on  the  horse  is  all  I  ever  perfect  made, 
And  to  do  that  T  had  to  leave  behind  every  other  trade- 
On  them,  others  have  sailed  far  in  advance  of  me  in  their  line; 
For  this  reason,  ray  time  lias  been  spent  on  the  horse,  you.  find-; 
A  man  cannot  carry  along  so  many  trades  and  excel, 
If  ho  perfects  only  one  in  life  he  will  do  very  well. 

To  write  poetry  is  quite  a  science,  too,  I  find ; 
To  make  all  run  smooth,  and  make  all  rhyme. 
Five  parts  have  got  to  be  carrried  at  the  same  time; 
Compose,  spall,  write,  convey,  and  make  all  rhyme. 

After  writing  awhile  I  think  at  that  I  can  do  well: 
What  bothers  me  the  most  is  to  all  words  spell. 
There  are  so  many  things  that  all  have  the  same  name, 
If  I  do  not  spell  them  all  right,  I  ought  not  to  be  to  blame. 

My  main  object  in  writing  this  book  is  tiie  liorse  to  rescue; 
And  if  you  will  read  it.  and  study  the  horse,  that  it  will  do ; 
And  after  you  have  learned  this  science  no  man  can  fool  you 
Much  on  stiff  horses  ;  if  they  do  it  will  be  only  on  a  few. 


SCIENTIFIC  ^VORKS   OF  GERARD 
DOAN    ON     THE     HORSE. 

By  experience  and  experimenting  for  forty-one 
years,  by  practical  work  as  a  horseshoer,  by  study- 
ing the  natural  horse  and  all  of  the  changes  from  the 
natural  to  the  unnatural,  and  their  effect  in  all  of  the 
different  changes,  I  find  the  noble  animal,  roan's  and 
woman's  favorite,  in  a  suffering  and  deformed  con- 
dition, which  I  shall  explain  in  this  work,  and  stand 
ready  to  demonstrate  and  teach  to  seekers  after 
knowledge  and  the  truth. 

Everything  is  a  mystery  until  it  comes  to  light; 
then  it  becomes  a  common  thing  when  understood,  like 
the  telegraph,  and  all  things,  man  being  a  progressive 
being.  The  seekers  after  knowledge  get  it;  that 
is  the  way  this  great  discovery  was  made,  through 
great  mental  and  practical  labor,  and  with  but  little 
help  or  reward.  A  large  part  of  my  hard-earned 
money  has  been  used  to  perfect  this  work,  but  it  is 
the  long-winded  horse  that  wins  the  race.  Right 
here,  I  will  say,  I  will  introduce  the  principles  laid 
down  in  this  book  or  die  a  pauper.  They  are  all 
facts,  and  have  been  demonstrated  hundreds  of  times 
by  J.  J.  Doan,  of  Auburn  city,  Cayuga  Co.,  N.  Y., 
and  by  Oliver  Doan,  of  the  same  place.  They  are 
skillful  operators.    The  horses  are  all,  or  nearly  all,  that 


16  THE   horse's   rescue. 

have  been  shod  one  year,  changed  from  natural, 
more  or  less,  some  way;  it  being  the  natural  conse- 
quence, it  not  being  natural  for  the  liorse  to  have  l;is 
feet  ironed.  When  the  horse  gets  stiff  or  lame,  he  is 
called  by  the  ignorant,  foundered.  They  think  or  talk 
that  they  had  watered  or  fed  them  to  warm,  or  fed 
them  too  much.  All  the  argument  they  can  bring  is, 
he  was  stiff  after  thev  had  fed  or  watered  him.  Al- 
most  all  men  water  and  feed  their  horses  three  times  a 
dav,  and  it  must  be  soon  after  the  feed  if  ever  they 
get  stiff.  This  word  "founder  "  has  been  in  use  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  and,  for  all  of  that,  it  has  no  meaning;  it 
does  not  tell  how  and  where  the  animal  is  affected^ 
only  he  is  lame  and  stiff,  he  is  incurable.  So  say  the 
ignorant  pretenders  to  great  wisdom  on  the  horse. 
This  stiffness  is  classed  in  four  different  kinds  of 
founder — water,  grain,  plank,  and  chest  founder 
Some  said  they  are  affected  one  way  and  some  in 
another;  all  disagree,  and  none  cure  or  remove 
the  cause.  I  differ  with  them  all  I  have  long 
known  what  ailed  these  horses,  and  can  remove  the 
cause,  and  will  explain  it  all  in  this  work,  and  pro- 
duce plenty  of  honest  and  scientific  men  that  have  had 
and  seen  it  done;  and,  as  strange  as  it  may  appear,  it 
requires  no  medicine  to  do  this  wonderful  woik.  Re- 
move the  cause,  and  nature  repairs  the  damages. 
This  work  is  confined  to  the  feet,  tracmg  cause  to  ef- 
fect and  effect  to  cause. 

I  might  as  well  say  here  what  removing  the  cause 
does.  It  lets  nature  have  a  chance  to  repair  damages  ; 
it  does  its  work  very  quick;  it  cures  water,  grain,  chesty 
and  plank  founder;  perished  shoulders  ;  it  straightens 


THE    horse's    rescue.  17 

the  leg,  called  the  tip-knee  ;  straightens  cocked  ankles , 
cures  corns,  coffin-joint  lamenesses,  the  ambler,  shuffler, 
spring-halt ;  horses  that  hop  behind  when  speeding ;  the 
single-footer.  These  names  are  known  and  understood 
by  horsemen.  It  removes  all  air  puffs  from  the 
horse,  and  makes  him  the  perfect  natural  horse. 
These  clianges  are  not  seen  only  by  a  very  close 
observer  of  long  practical  experience.  It  took  me  a 
long  time.  It  was  clothed  and  buried  in  mystery. 
The  first  horse  I  ever  shod  was  a  cripj^le.  One  foot 
was  so  bad  it  could  not  be  shod ;  I  have  shod 
cripples  ever  since,  and  they  are  all  over  the  woi'ld,  so 
far  as  I  have  been.  There  have  been  hundreds  of 
books  written  on  the  horse,  and  they  seem  to  be  the 
same  thing  continued — doctoring  the  effect;  finding  a 
sore  place,  and  making  it  worse. 

It  is  not  my  intention  in  this  work  to  travel  that 
old  field  over  again,  and  rehearse  all  of  the  cruelty  and 
barbarism  that  I  have  seen  practiced  on  the  already 
suffering  horse,  called  doctoring.  My  intention  is  to 
introduce  something  to  relieve  suffering.  I  said  I  use 
no  medicine  to  cure  these  horses.  For  fear  you  may 
think  I  perform  some  surgical  operation,  I  will  state 
here  I  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  do  not  draw  blood 
on  the  horse ;  it  is  hard  work  to  do  it,  but  it  is  busi- 
ness.   It's  no  miracle  or  miraculous  thing ;  it  is  science. 

I  use  these  words,  founder,  ambler,  single-footer, 
and  other  names,  or  people  would  not  understand  what 
I  am  talking  about.  The  fact  is,  it  is  all  summed  up 
in  these  words :  Horses  are  changed  from  natural  in 
many  ways  and  many  stages,  which  I  will  explain  on 
principles  which  will  not  lie. 


18  THE    HORSF/s    liESCUE. 

This  work  will  be  arranged  on  scientific  principlef?, 
with  a  foundation  and  superstructare  that  will  stand, 
based,  ns  it  is,  on  truth,  facts,  and  principles  that  men 
cannot  supersede,  if  thej  equal.  These  principles  j^ou 
have  got  to  know.  To  cure  tlie  horse,  you  must  make 
him  natural.  I  have  read  some  books  on  the  horse,  but 
I  could  find  nothing  in  them  to  clear  the  fog  away,  no 
svstem.  There  were  receipts  to  cure  these  difficulties 
the  horse  was  in,  which  I  well  knew  were  of  no  kind  of 
use,  onlv  to  make  bad  worse.  I  continued  mv  search. 
It  has  been  a  hard  road  to  travel  so  far.  I  am  getting 
off  of  the  subject ;  I  do  not  want  to  write  my  life  in 
this  work.  I  will  explain  in  this  work  the  effect  in 
all  of  the  different  changes,  changing  back  to  natural. 
1  do  not  intend,  for  the  sake  of  making  a  large  book, 
to  write  much  more  than  enough  to  convey  what  I 
want  to  on  the  horse  ;  the  simpler  and  less  complicated, 
the  easier  learned  and  understood.  For  fear  the  reader 
mif^ht  misconstrue  what  I  have  written  before,  I  will 
say  here  I  do  not  mean  to  be  understood  that  1  will 
make  all  of  these  lame  and  deformed  horses  natural; 
there  are  some  that  are  past  help,  and  this  work  does 
not  take  up  blemished  horses,  such  as  ring-bones  and 
spavins,  curb-splints,  thorough-pins.  I  pronounce  the 
ring-bone  incurable;  it  is  a  bone  affection,  and  the 
spavin  the  same.  Ring-bone  destroys  the  structure  of 
the  foot;  they  can  be  relieved  some  by  shoeing  and 
dressing  the  foot,  for  which  I  may  give  directions  in  this 
work.  Wlien  horses  are  blemished — the  kind  1  have 
mentioned — they  have  lost  two-thirds  of  their  value, 
no  matter  how  much  they  were  valued,  as  it  brings 
them  all  down  on  a  par,  save  the  clean-limbed,  and  that 


THE    horse's    rescue.  19 

will  be  business  enough.  It  is  not  the  intention  of 
this  work  to  keep  up  this  changing  back  to  natural, 
but  it  will  have  to  be  done  many  years  before  the 
people  will  learn  these  principles,  and  there  are  millions 
of  horses  in  all  stages  of  suffering;  some  are  there  and 
some  have  just  started.  It  will  be  a  long  time  before 
this  will  be  understood.  Iris  not  the  intention  of  this 
work  to  keep  up  the  curing  stiff  and  lame  horses;  the 
preventive  is  what  I  want  to  teach  and  introduce;  but 
before  the  owner  can  prevent  he  must  know  how  to 
cure;  then,  in  this  case,  he  has  the  preventive  that  I 
will  explain  about  in  the  course  of  this  work,  scientifi- 
callv. 

A  FEW  REMARKS  IN  DEFENSE  OF  THE  ABUSED  AND 
WRONGED  HOKSE-SHOER. — THE  QUALIFICATIONS 
HE  NEEDS  TO  MAKE  HIM  A  GOOD  ONE. 

He  should  weigh  about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  pounds,  his  working  weight;  five  feet  seven  inches 
tall,  size  around  under  his  arms  forty  inches,  broad- 
shouldered,  short-necked,  something  like  a  bull;  mus- 
cle and  strength  equal  to  the  best  well-fed  stallion  ;  a 
large  amount  of  courage,  physical  force,  firmness,  and 
resolution;  an  inexhaustible  amount  of  patience,  so  as 
to  enable  him  to  come  to  time  when  he  is  kicked 
across  the  shop,  or  turned  a  summersault;  his  head 
should  liave  a  reasonable  amount  of  brains ;  he  should 
have  a  mild  and  passive  nature,  so  he  can  stand  perse- 
cution without  showing  any  signs  of  anger  when  he 
is  told  twenty  times  a  day,  by  Jones  or  Tom  or  Jirn, 
or  that  old  "They  say,"  the  father  of  all  lies, 
that  he  lias  spoilt  his   horse,  and  he  can  never  set 


20  '    "  THE  HORSES    RESCUE. 

another  shoe  for  him,  when  the  fault  is  more  their 
own  than  the  smith's,  and  no  fault  of  either  ofttimes, 
if  it  was  understood,  which  I  will  show  and  explain  in 
this  work.  There  is  no  business  that  tries  man's 
powers  of  endurance  equal  to  that  of  horse-shoeing, 
and  no  class  of  mechanics  so  poorly  paid,  according  to 
labor  performed.  He  is  expected  to  be  there  at  his 
post,  always  pleasant,  with  a  smile  on  his  face  when 
three  or  four  wild  colts  arrive  to  be  shod,  or  a  vicious 
stallion,  sometimes  two  or  three,  and  often  twenty  and 
more;  all  want  to  get  home  to  dinner.  These  colts 
never  had  a  foot  raised  from  the  ground ;  if  they  have 
it  has  been  with  a  rope  tied  to  it,  and  jerked  at  a 
while  ;  they  call  that  breaking  them  for  shoeing,  when 
the  fact  is  the  owner  dare  not  even  take  up  afoot;  yet 
the  shoer  is  expected  to  get  through  this  difficult  task 
in  time  for  dinner;  during  this  time  there  are  more 
arrivals,  two  or' three  old  offenders,  for  the  after-part 
of  the  day ;  a  lot  of  old  cripples,  so  tortured  on  their 
feet  that  they  can  hardly  stand,  caused  by  ironing 
their  feet ;  and  yet  he  is  expected  to  cure  these  old  de- 
formed horses,  or  he  is  no  mechanic.  They 'ride  him 
parf  of  the  afternoon :  the  balance  is  filled  up  with  the 
old  offending  kickers  and  strikers.  They  rise  up  on 
your  knees,  and  throw  nearly  all  of  their  weight  on 
you  repeatedly  ;  and  finally  they  smash  down  on  your 
bio-  toes,  and  off  goes  the  nails;  mine  has  been  smashed 
off  so  much  there  is  but  little  left.  ^  nd  all  this  is  ex- 
pected to  be  endured  for  a  miserable  existence.  Imag- 
ine the  shoer's  feelings,  and  this  is  to  be  endured  daily 
until  he  is  broken  down,  and  crippled  worse  than  the 
horse,  at  about  forty  years  of  age.     He  has  put  his 


THE    horse's    rescue.  21 

strength  against  thousands  of  horses  and  mCiles,  and  it 
is  surprising  to  me  that  shoeis  last  as  long  as  they  do 
If  you  want  your  horse  well  shod,  give  your  shoer 
plenty  of  time  to  do  it,  and  pay  hiia  well;  for  no  man 
can  do  a  good  job,,  at  any  kind  of  business,  if  he  is 
hurried,  and  goes  blundering  along.  Ironing  the 
horse's  foot  is,  or  should  be,  the  most  scientific  piece 
of  mechanical  work  ever  done  ;  and  yet  it  is  but  glim- 
meringly  understood.  "No  one  is  to  blame ;  all  are 
studying  and  trying  their  level  best  to  find  their  way 
out  of  tliis  entanglement,  and  I  have  been  in  that  same 
fix  for  vears. 

Nine  years  previous  to  the  date  of  this  work  I  "  dug 
out,"  which  I  will  show  in  the  course  of  this  work. 
The  shoer  is  expected  to  do  what  is  impossible  for  him 
to  do,  and  it  is  unjust  to  blame  him  or  hold  him  re- 
sponsible for  your  horse  in  any  way,  for  many  reasons. 
In  the  first  place,  he  does  not  have  your  horse  in  his 
care,  neither  does  he  drive  him.  He  shoes  him  and 
he  is  gone,  and  the  owner  takes  no  care  of  his  feet. 
Perhaps  he  exchanges  for  another,  cr  sells  him — that 
is  going  on  all  the  time,  and  always  will  be.  The  shoer 
does  the  best  he  can.  The  horse  comes  to  him,  his 
leet  dry  and  hard-shrunken.  He  pares  his  feet  and 
irons  him.  This  treatment  will  spoil  all  cupping  feet. 
In  fact,  there  is  no  use  trying  to  lay  down  any  princi- 
ples to  iron  the  horses  feet  to  prevent  him  from  chang- 
ing from  natural,  for  he  is  traveling  on  unnatural  feet 
all  of  the  time,  unless  he  is  dfead.  There  has  been  a 
large  amount  of  talk  about  shoes,  and  all  to  no  pur- 
pose. There  are  no  curing  properties  in  shoes.  There 
is  one  principle  that  helps  a  little  if  proper  care  is 


22  THE    horse's    rescue. 

taken  of  the  foot,  and  that  but  very  few  will  do. 
I  saw  at  the  Centennial  quite  a  number  of  horses' 
hoofs  with  pi'inted  papei's  on  them.  I  read  tliem. 
This  was  on  them  all,  "Caused  b}''  impi-oper  shoeing." 
Same  old  stor3^  I  am  not  going  to  spend  my  time  and 
fill  up  this  book  with  a  lot  of  trash  tliat  has  been 
talked  and  written  for  hundreds  of  years — a  large 
amount  of  talk,  but  little  knowledge  that  has  been  any 
benefit  to  the  suffeiing  horse. 

KINDS   OF   FEET. 

I  will  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  horses'  foot — how 
to  select.  There  are  four  kinds  of  feet  on  colts  be- 
fore thev  have  been  ironed  ;  then  thev  commenc=;j  to 
change  and  assume  all  kinds  of  shapes  hard  to  de- 
scribe; and  it  matters  not  what  shape  they  are  in, 
I  shall  show  in  this  work  I  change  them  back  to  the 
natural  one  ;  that  is,  put  the  colt's  foot  on  the  horse. 
That  is  what  I  want  to  teach. 

The  foot  halE  way  between  the  large  flat  foot  and 
cupping  foot  is  the  best,  for  this  reason:  It  ex- 
pands from  the  weight  of  the  horse.  The  cup  foot  con- 
tracts faster.  The  large  flat  foot  expands  too  much 
with  the  weight  of  the  horse.  The  large  peck-measui-e 
foot  is  poorest  of  all.  It  has  too  much  membrane;  it 
is  too  heavy,  and  changes  quicker;  it  is  moi-e liable  to 
get  sore  by  ironing.  They  are  all  good  enough  for 
me,  as  I  can  do  what  I  want  with  them.  That  is  what 
I  want  to  teach ;  that  is  what  all  ought  to  know. 

HOW    TO   RAISE    UP   A   GOOD   STRAIGHT  HORSE. 

Tliis  is  the  most  important  of  all.  The  horse,  while 
growing  up  from  a  colt,  is  neglected,  not  intentionally. 


THK    irOIlSE's    HESCtJE.  23 

but  through  ignorance  in  regard  to  his  feet,  and  the 
effect  it  has.     By  tliis  neglect  his  hoofs  are  allowed  to 
growiu  all  shapes.  They  need  trimming,  and  to  be  kept 
in  their  proper  shape.     A  long  toe  does  not  affect  the 
colt  as  much  as  it  does  the  shod  horse,  for  this  reason  : 
the  structure  of  the  foot  is  nearly  all  in  harmony  on 
the  flat  foot ;  on  the  cup  foot  it  is  different ;  the  wall  is 
thicker;  it  does  not  wear  off  as  fast.     I  have  seen  a 
few,  and  shod  them,  that  were  stiff,  that  never  had  a 
shoe  on.     Tliis  kind  should  have  their  feet  cared  for, 
pared  down  heel  and  toe.     The  flat-foot  seldom  needs 
paring  on  the  bottom,  but  his  feet  should  be  trimmed. 
Take  him  on  the  floor,  hold  or  strap  up  one  foot,  take 
a  chisel  and  mallet,  trim  all  of  his  feet,  rasp  them  tiue  ; 
see  if   he  can  stand  with   his  forward  feet   back  of 
straight,  see   if  he  stand  well  back  on   his  hind  feet, 
and  keep  him  so.     If  you  want  to  see  if  your  colt  is 
growing  up  straight  and  natural,  and  the  structure  of 
his  feet  natural,  look  at  the  top  of  the  heel.     The  heel 
is  double.     If  the  two  parts  are  not  even,  the  structure 
is  changed  from  natural,  and  should  be  changed  back. 
On  all,  or  nearly  all,  horse  kind  the  outside  wall  grows 
the  fastest,  and  is  the  thickest  and  strongest.      The 
growth  raises  the  outside ;  that  throws  too  much  weight 
on  the  inside,  and  warps  or  pushes  up  the  inside   heel 
Look  your  horse  over.     You  can  equalize  the  weight 
by-dressing  the  bottom.     You  can  easily  tell  how  this 
should  be  done  if  you  look.    This  unequal  weight  pro- 
duces the  same  effect  on  colts  that  it  does  on   shod 
horses — the  same  unnatural  strain  on  the  back  tendons 
— warping  the    foot   or   pushing  up  the  inside    heel, 
which  turns  out  the  toes  and  causes  the  ankles'  to  turn 


24  THE   HORSE  S   RESCUE. 

in,  and  that  makes  the  horse  interfere.     He  cannot 
move  well. 

The  same  effect  is  produced  from  the  same  cause  if 
he  is  run  over  the  opposite ;  it  turns  his  toes  in,  his 
ankles  out  The  fact  is,  his  heels  should  always  be 
kept  as  even  at  the  top  as  possible.  This  keeps  the 
foot  nearly  on  a  straight  line.  The  point  of  the  frog 
is  the  guide.  Make  a  true  circle  from  that  point  each 
way  after  you  have  got  the  heels  even  at  the  top. 
This  will  stop  more  horses  from  interfering  than  all 
the  tinkering  ever  done.  Of  course  there  should  be 
judgment  used  in  dressing  the  foot.  A  long,  pointed- 
toe  is  not  natural  either  on  the  horse's  forward  or 
hinder  feet.  Keep  the  feet  natural  as  near  as  possible. 
The  fact  is,  the  colt  grows  up  crooked  for  the  want  of 
proper  care,  the  raisers  being  ignorant  in  regard  to  this 
fact,  which  I  well  know.  Look  at  your  colts,  not  at 
pictures  of  horses,  if  you  want  to  study  the  horse.  If 
you  will  read  this  book  carefully,  you  will  see  these 
facts  as  plain  as  I  do,  and  can  talk  horse  as  well. 

I  have  been  told  that  I  have  broken  myself  down 
bawling  "horse."  My  lungs  are  the  soundest  part  of 
me.  I  could  talk  this  twenty  times  faster  than  I  can 
write  it.  Talk  comes  with  the  knowledge;  quite  a 
number  of  exceptions  to  that  rule.  One  thing  my 
mouth  was  made  for  is  to  talk. 

To  return  to  the  subject:  I  have  straightened  hun- 
dreds of  colts'  feet,  although  they  had  grown  up  de- 
formed and  crooked.  The  colt  comes  to  the  shoer  in 
this  condition,  run  over,  both  toes  out,  sometimes  all. 
or  in.  On  forward  legs,  they  come  with  knees  thrown 
together,  ankles  on  hind  feet  run  over  the  opposite 


THE  horse's  rescue.  25 

throwing  ankles  out  when  moving  forward  feet 
pointing  on  two  opposite  lines,  hind  feet  traveling 
in  two  opposite  lines,  ofttimes  so  bad  that  the  lines 
cross  each  other  six  feet  from  the  starting-point; 
head  going  on  straight  line.  The  horse  gets  fre- 
quently a  jerk  on  the  mouth  for  his  awkwardness. 
If  he  should  happen  to  blunder  he  would  be  likely  to 
get  thrashed.  Then  the  shoer  takes  a  scurfing  for  not 
making  that  horse  move  well.  "  He  is  an  old  botch." 
He  tries  another.  He  is  told  Wood,  or  Doan  may  be, 
can  shoe  him  so  he  can  travel  all  right.  The  colt  goes 
the  rounds,  and  the  result  is  not  good.  Before  I  get 
thi'ough  this  work  I  will  clear  some  of  that  fog  away. 
This  ends  my  treatise  on  the  colt 

A   FEW   REMARKS   ON   SELECTING   A    GOOD    HORSE    FOR 

MYSELF. 

There  are  many  diverse  tastes  and  different  opin- 
ions and  judgments  in  regard  to  the  horse,  so  I  will 
select  one  for  myself.  For  the  road  I  like  a  rangy 
horse,  about  ten  hundred  weight ;  foot  half  way  be- 
tween the  cup  and  large  flat  foot;  short  from  fetlock 
down;  large  arm;  heavy  cords;  leg  tapering  to  the 
foot ;  forward  legs  well  back  under  ;  that  is,  points  of 
shoulders  projecting  well  over ;  not  very  wide  between 
legs;  thin  withers;  long,  thin,  arched  neck,  well  cut 
out  under  the  threat;  light,  clean  head;  large,  full 
eyes  ;  short,  straightish  back ;  broad  hips  ;  round  body  ?* 
no  curb  joints.  I  never  saw  a  horse  too  full  at  the 
breast  to  suit  me;  flat  leg;  middling  straight  hind 
leg,  tapering  to  the  feet;  ribbed  up  close;  full  of 
courage   and    ambition.     My    favorite   color   is   dark 


26  THE  horse's  rescue. 

mahogany  bay  ;  black  legs,  mane,  and  tail.  In  choos- 
ing a  horse  it  depends  something  on  what  use  you 
want  to  put  him  to.  There  is  a  variety  of  horses  in 
shnpe,  all  good.  The  creator  iias  taken  as  much  pains 
in  making  the  horse  as  it  has  making  mankind,  and 
there  are  about  as  many  different  forms  and  colors. 
I  never  saw  a  perfect  idiot,  looking  the  whole  race 
over.  I  have  seen  lots  of  fools  driving  horses,  and 
worse  than  fools.  I  am  come  to  their  rescue.  The 
horse  is  a  slave,  if  that  word  has  any  meaning ;  and  I 
think  it  has.'  There  is  no  animal  that  is  abused  and 
suffers  equal  to  the  noble  animal,  the  horse.  He  is 
tied  up  by  his  head,  covered  with  foam  and  perspira- 
tion, panting  for  breath,  in  cold^  bleak  winds,  witliout 
feed  or  water,  while  the  driver  is  sitting  by  a  com- 
fortable fire.  Perhaps  the  clothing  nature  provided 
for  him  is  all  sheared  off.  Thus  he  is  expected  to 
stand  until  his  driver  is  readv  for  another  lide.  If  he 
gets  in  the  stable  daring  the  long,  cold  night,  he  will 
be  lucky,  and  gets  any  water  or  feed.  All  foam  and 
sweat,  there  he  shivers.  In  the  morning  you  can  see 
him  covered  with  frost.  Such  cruelty  as  that  is  hard 
for  me  to  see  and  not  try  to  do  all  that  is  in  my  power 
to  relieve  his  suffering.  Knowing  as  I  do  the  pain  he 
has  to  endure,  and  its  causes,  and  then  sit  down  and 
not  do  my  level  best  to  help  him,  I  think  it  would  be 
wrong. 

My  nature  is  such  that  it  causes  me  to  suffer  with 
them;  and  I  do  suffer  intensely,  too.  If  I  did  not 
know  how  to  relieve  them,  perhaps  I  would  feel  differ- 
ent. Nearly  all  of  my  life  has  been  spent  in  doing  all 
I  could  to  relieve  this  noble  animal's  suffering,  and 


THK   SORSE'S   rescue.  27 

I  have  relieved  it  in  a  small  degree.  But  it  was  only 
in  a  small  field  that  I  could  work  compared  with  this 
wholesale  torturing  that  is  going  on. 

I  am  fiftv-five  years  of  ao^e  ;  mv  health  is  orivins:  out  • 
I  feel  I  am  getting  stiff,  too.  I  have  laid  the  ham- 
mer down  to  write  this  woik  to  still  keep  up  the  bat- 
tle to  free  the  suffering  horse,  and  to  see  if  I  can  work 
a  larger  field  and  on  a  better  plan  to  introduce  this  great 
discovery  that  has  cost  me  so  much  mental  and  physical 
labor  for  forty-one  years.  If  I  fail  to  introduce  it,  and 
let  it  be  buried  again,  I  have  made  a  failure  of  life 
after  all. 

The  horse  suffers  greatly  in  many  ways.  The 
cause  of  the  greatest  suffering  is  in  his  feet.  That  I 
will  explain  and  teach.  I  have  not  quit  yet,  nor 
ever  will,  while  I  am  alive.  I  do  not  know  as  I  shall 
after  I  am  what  they  call  dead.  I  shall  be  at  the  front 
under  all  circumstances.  No  matter  how  much  the  op- 
position, 3'ou  will  find  me  at  my  post.  If  you  want  to 
know  something  of  the  suffering  of  the  horse,- if  you 
ever  had  the  toothach®  bad,  you  can  judge  a  little. 
That  is  no  comparison  to  what  the  horse  suffers* 
There  is  nothing  it  can  be  compared  to.  I  v^^ill  tr}^  to 
convey  something  of  it,  which  I  well  know  I  have  not 
the  power. 

To  begin,  the  structure  of  the  foot  is  chanD:ed  from 
natural  in  many  ways  and  in  many  different  stages. 
Ponder,  think  !  Can  this  take  place  without  an  effect? 
I  well  know  it  cannot.  All  men  must  see  this.  I  ap- 
peal to  all  thinking  naturalists  and  scientific  men  for 
their  aid  to  help  introduce  this  work.  There  are 
three  Doan  brothers.      Thev  have  been  battling:  for 


28  THE  horse's  rescue. 

years  against  a  power  of  opposition.  I  assure  you  we 
are  not  ignorant  of  our  surroundings.  All  great 
things  are  small  at  the  beginning.  An}^  great  science 
like  this  is  in  advance  of  the  age.  The  craft  is  in 
danger.  This  great  discovery  looms  up  head  and 
shoulders  over  all.  I  return  to  the  suffering  horse;  I 
cannot  get  away  from  him.  I  said  the  structure  of 
the  foot  was  changed  from  natural.  No  matter  how 
much  or  how  little,  or  in  what  way,  or  what  degree, 
the  horse's  suffering  commences  at  the  first  change. 
The  more  he  is  changfed  from  natural,  the  more  in- 
tense  is  his  suffering,  until  death  comes  to  his  relief. 
It  will  be  well  to  mention  a  few  cases  here.  While  I 
was  looking  for  one  of  these  sufferers  to  demonstrate 
soiiie  things  and  relieve  their  suffering,  I  went  into  a 
stable  at  Elmira.  There  I  saw  one  of  thousands  of 
cases  like  this,  lying  in  a  small,  un ventilated  place,  on 
a  pile  of  manure — a  fine  young  horse,  with  sores  on  his 
sides.  I  asked  how  long  he  had  been  in  that  condi- 
tion. I  think  they  said  about  three  months.  I  asked 
what  ailed  the  horse.  They  said  he  had  bruised  his 
feet  working  in  the  stone  quarry.  He  was  gnawing 
his  feet,  and  had  holes  gnawed  at  the  top  of  the  hoof. 
There  were  marks  of  teeth  all  over  his  feet.  He  was 
not  what  I  w^as  in  search  of.  I  tried  to  buy  him. 
They  said  he  was  a  fine  horse.  It  would  take  some 
money  to  buy  him.  How  much,  I  asked,  will  it  take? 
"One  hundred  and  fifty  dollars."  That  horse  died; 
and,  worse  than  all,  his  shoes  were  on.  He  was  com- 
pletely paralyzed.  I  well  knew^  what  ailed  him — cup 
foot   badly  contracted,    or,   in   other   words,  changed 


THE  horse's  rescue.  29 

from  natural;  his  eyes  looked  sunken,  staring,  and 
glassy. 

There  are  thousands  in  this  same  condition. 
Fonder,  think,  I  say,  again  ;  look  at  your  horse  after 
you  have  looked  this  work  through.  That  is  the 
place  to  look.  Study  tlic  horse  as  I  have  done; 
understand  there  are  all  stages  of  these  changes,  and 
always  a  beginning.  There  is  the  end  above  men- 
tioned. What  do  3'ou  think  I  wanted  of  that  horse 
on  that  pile  of  manure?  I  wanted  to  relieve  his  suf- 
fering: You  say,  "Why  didn't  you?"  They  would 
not  let  me.  They  called  me  a  "damned  old  lunatic.'' 
That  did  not  affect  me  any  ;  that  had  become  a  com- 
mon thing  many  3'ears  before.  I  have  been  told  so 
much  that  I  am  crazy,  not  being  a  judge  of  lunacy. 
I  was  in  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  some  two  years  ago. 
They  have  a  lunatic  asylum  there.  It  struck  me  it 
would  be  a  good  time  to  test  my  case.  They  have 
several  hundred  lunatics  in  that  asvlum.  It  was  Sun- 
day.  It  is  their  custom  to  get  them,  or  nearly  all  of 
them,  in  one  room,  then  sing.  I  got  permission  to  go 
in.  They  did  not  act  crazy;  all  w^as  quiet.  When 
singing  was  over,  all  marched  out  in  single  file.  I 
did  not  learn  anything  satisfactory  touching  my  case 
by  this  experiment.  I  am  writing  history  of  my  life- 
I  must  return  to  the  horse.  As  this  is  not  intended 
to  be  a  history  of  my  life,  it  matters  not  where  I  sail 
to,  neither  does  it  matter  which  end. I  begin  at,  as  this 
is  not  intended  to  be  the  scientific  part  of  this  work. 

At  sixteen  years  of  age  you  can  see  a  boy  sitting  on 
a  saw-horse,  about  six  feet  from  a  horse.  The  horse 
interfered.    His  ankles  were  bleeding  and  sore.    Kight 


30  TSE    HORSil'S    RESCUE. 

there  was  the  first  scientific  principle  I  ever  studied  out 
on  the  horse.  I  did  not  get  half  of  that.  At  that 
time  I  did  not  know  his  foot  was  changed  from  natural 
and  run  over  inside,  half  of  double  heel  pushed  up, 
causing  the  toe  to  turn  out  and  ankle  in.  I  saw  I 
could  throw  his  ankle  out  by  lowering  the  outside 
heel  and  outside  toe,  and  the  outside  heel  of  shoe  and 
.toe  of  shoe.  That  throws  the  weight  on  the  outside; 
that  will  push  up  the  outside  heel ;  that  turns  the  toe 
in,  brings  the  foot  on  a  straight  line.  This  principle, 
followed  up,  will  run  the  toe  in  or  out  by  changing 
the  weight  on  the  double  heel  both  forward  and  be- 
hind. When  the  top  of  heel  is  even,  care  should  be 
taken  to  dress  bottom,  so  as  to  equalize  weight ;  give 
easy  toe  to  raise  on,  or  he  will  toe  in  or  out  to  relieve 
the  back  tendons.  His  foot  is  growing  all  the  time, 
and  when  it  gets  long  the  strain  increases.  If  it  is 
very  long  be  will  be  apt  to  turn  out  his  toes,  the 
ankles  turn  in.  In  this  ease  he  will  be  likely  to  inter- 
fere, unless  the  shoe  is  reset,  the  foot  dressed  and 
made  shorter.  This  principle  will  hold  good  to  shoe 
all  horses  that  are  natural,  or  have  not  been  injured  in 
any  way.  If  they  have  there  is  no  better  principle, 
if  it  is  done  right.  If  the  horse  is  used  right,  on  any 
decent  road,  and  is  not  driven  nearly  to  death,  which 
he  often  is.  And  yet  other  difficulties  soon  arise 
after  the  horse's  foot  has  been  ironed  a  short  time. 
The  cup  foot  suffers  the  most — it  cannot  expand. 
What  effect  that  can  have  I  will  tell  you.  It  grows 
straighter  up.  The  sole,  that  is,  the  bottom,  rises,  and 
most  in  the  center;  that  changes  the  whole  structure 
of  the  foot,  inside  and  out.     That  affects   the  coffin- 


THE    horse's    rescue.  SI 

joint  most  It  is  located  nearly  in  the  center;  this 
change  is  going  on  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  all  the 
time,  if  the  foot  is  ironed.  It  pushes  out  of  tlie  cup; 
or,  in  oLlier  words,  top  of  hoof  or  wall.  That  destro^'S 
all  harrnori\^  of  action,  and  it  does  not  stop  where  the 
cause  is  located.  Trace  from  that  cause  to  the  effect. 
Its  effect  is  more  than  jou  ever  thought  of.  It  does 
more  mischief  thaa  you  are  aware  of;  it  effects  the 
horse  all  over. 

Now  I  am  talking  about  the  hind  feet.  They  get 
higher,  as  this  contraction  takes  place,  from  bottom  to 
top.  They  cannot  be  lowered  by  paring  as  low  as 
the}''  should  be,  for  this  reason  :  you  wouid  come  to 
the  membrane  at  the  bottom  near  the  wall  inside  of 
sliell.  You  must  liave  shell  foi-  shoe  to  rest  on.  or 
lameness  will  be  the  result.  If  3'ou  (lo])are  down,  the 
cause  is  tliere  jet.  The  toot  is  not  tiie  natural  size, 
and  this  is  not  all.  It  shoves  the  foot  forward.  Of 
course  the  leg  goes  with  it.  This  change  is  going  on 
as  the  sole  raises  in  center,  where  it  raises  fastest ;  I 
mean  highest.  It  all  goes  together.  After  you  have 
cupped  out  the  foot,  place  a  straight  edge  across  the 
center;  measuring  down;  that  will  tell  you.  Com- 
mence at  side  of  frog,  measure  out  to  wall.  That  will 
tell  you.  As  this  change  is  allowed  to  go  on  in  tliat 
course,  the  foot  moves  forward  according  to  the 
desrrees  of  chanQ:e  from  natural  nntil  the  liorse  is 
nearly  off  his  legs,  and  he  is  standing  gambols  out, 
feet  huddled  together,  with  a  constant  strain  on  tl.e 
back  tendons  or  cords;  the  heels  closed  in,  stiuctnie 
ail  changed.     My  god,  the  pain  and  suffering  this  poor 


82  THE  horse's  rescue. 

horse  endures  !    and  that,  too,  continually  until  wel. 
oume  death  comes  to  his  relief. 

Let  us  continue  this  search.  What's  the  matter 
with  this  horse's  back?  He  humps  up  across  his 
loin.  Oh,  I  see;  it's  this  position  he  is  obliged  to 
stand  in,  caused  by  the  structure  of  his  foot  being 
changed  from  natural.  Why,  he  has  got  irons  on 
his  feet !  Now  T  am  going  inside  and  see  what  I  can 
find  in  there.  I  see  his  kidneys  affected,  urinary 
organs  all  affected,  caused  by  this  unnatural  strain  and 
position  which  he  is  placed  in,  and  obliged  to  stand 
and  travel,  and  draw  heavy  loads  day  after  day.  Of 
course  that  effect  must  quite  often  be  doctored.  His 
water-works  are  out  of  order  by  being  obliged  to  work 
and  draw  heavy  loads  when  all  are  out  of  harmony. 
I  have  changed  lots  of  these  poor  horses  back  to  nat. 
ural  on  scientific  principles,  and  all  came  right  in  a 
little  time,  and  no  medicine  used.  If  vou  follow  me 
you  will  have  a  wild-goose  chase,  for  I  am  going  to 
have  a  horse  sail.  Don't  back  out  I  will  bring  you 
back  all  right.  Oh,  there  has  come  a  poor,  suffering 
horse.  I  must  go  and  relieve  him.  I  left  that  poor 
horse  in  a  bad  fix.  I  did  not  look  his  fore  parts  over. 
I  will.  He  is  braced  out  from  the  same  cause.  Like 
causes  produce  like  effects.  I  mean  tlie  horse  I  was 
writing  about.  I  told  you  how  he  was  affected  on  his 
hind  parts,  as  far  as  I  went.  Let  us  talk  about  the 
same  horse's  fore  parts.  Contraction  changes  the 
structure  of  foot  th.e  same,  and  shoves  the  foot  for- 
ward on  the  same  principles  according  to  the  degree 
of  change.  It  changes  faster  on  the  cup  foot.  What 
effect  does  that  have  ?     Strain  on  back  tendons.  That 


THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE.  35' 

is  bad  enough.  His  forward  legs  should  stand  back 
of  straight.  When  standing,  are  all  of  his  feet  in  a 
pile?  and  when  moving,  trotting,  see  what  strides  he 
makes,  and  yet  it  would  not  sore  him  if  he  never  had 
his  feet  ironed.  That  has  produced  this  change  ;  and 
when  ironed  it  does  not  wear  off.  That  is  not  all.  It 
is  growing  all  of  the  time  in  some  shape,  and  assumes 
many  ;  and  with  all  of  the  experience  I  have  had  I 
cannot  describe  these  feet.  Let  us  go  up  a  little  higher. 
His  chest  is  all  fallen  in.  That  is  called  chest-founder 
by  people  that  have  no  knowledge  of  the  horse.  Well, 
what  is  it?  changed  from  natural.  Being  changed  in 
this  way,  the  head  is  drawn  do^^n  ;  the  shoulders  drop 
back,  and  begin  to  perish  ;  he  is  fastened  there.  He 
is  worked  in  that  position  and  wofully  deformed,  and 
it  is  not  seen  except  by  a  very  few  and  never  have  been 
seen ;  they  are  quite  natural  on  their  forward  parts, 
and  very  bad  behind,  and  seem  quite  natural  behind. 
la  some  one  foot  is  changed  and  its  mate  is  quite 
natural.  These  feet  do  not  change  in  pairs.  There 
are  all  stages  of  it  difficult  to  describe.  My  long  ex- 
perience and  experimenting  and  shoeing  these  poor 
horses  enable  me  to  see  it  instantW.  There  are  other 
causes  that  lame  these  horses,  which  I  will  explain. 
This  poor  horse  that  I  have  been  talking  about  is 
changed  fore  and  aft,  but  I  shall  have  to  leave  him 
awhile  to  suffer,  as  I  have  walked  with  tears  in  my 
eyes  away  from  thousands.  But  1  will  come  to  his 
relief  and  get  him  out  of  his  trouble  before  I  get 
through  this  work.  He  is  not  so  bad  off  as  he  can  be 
made.  I  will  come  and  see  him  again.  This  is  the 
way  this  work   was  discovered  and   perfected,  always 


34  THE    HQB3ES    RESQUE. 

on  the  watch,  always  ready  to  do  all  I  could  to  relieve; 
and  I  went  at  it  where  I  saw  I  could  help  them.  Some 
I  could  and  some  I  could  not ;  but  I  tried  and  kept 
trying,  though  not  on  the  right  principle.  But  I  did 
find  out  the  right  principle  and  get  master  of  the  feet 
at  last. 

Hello,  here  comes  Sam  Grover. 

"Can  you  set  a  shoe?" 

"  Yes  ;  lead  in.  W.hat  ails  that  mare,  Sam  V  she  is 
awful  stiff." 

"Yes;  she  has  been  so  these  two  years." 

"How  old  it  she?" 

"Six." 

"Ever  done  anything  for  her?" 

"Yes;  she  has  been  doctored;  has  had  setons  in 
her  shoulders ;  blistered.  She  belonged  to  Doc.  Mede. 
They  think  she  was  stiffened  driving  tn rough  the  creek 
to  wash  her  legs  off  when  he  came  home." 

"I  can  cure  that  mare." 

"Doc  could  not  drive  her  on  the  road,  so  he  let  his 
brother  Gird  have  her.     She  has  been  turned  out  sijc 

months." 

"Did  that  help  her  any?" 

"  No  ;  she  sores  up  as  quick  as  she  ia  driven." 

"  What  breed  is  she?" 

"Kentucky  hunter." 

"Did  they  pull  her  sh jes  off  when  they  turned  heir. 

out?" 

"  No." 

"  I've  got  a  good  young  mare  coming  five  that  will 
match  that  bay  of  yours,     I  will  trade  for  that  stiff 


mare." 


THE    horse's    rescue.  So 

"I  will  trade.     Gird  told  me  to  trade  her  off.     How 
will  you  trade  " 

"Give  me  twentj-five  dollars." 

"I'll  give  jou  twenty." 

"It's  a  bargain." 

"Trust  for  the  money?" 

"  No  ;  cash  down  boot  money  on  a  horse  trade." 

"Leave  the  trade  open  till  Saturday;  got  to  go 
home." 

"Yes;  any  time  in  a  week  will  do." 

He  came  in  a  day  or  two.  It  had  frozen  up  rough 
and  hard.     He  had  to  come  thirteen  miles  over  hubs. 

''Well,  how  is  horse  trade?" 

"All  right;  unhitch." 

Of  all  stiff  and  sore  horses  I  ever  saw,  she  was  the 
worst,  and  stand  up.  She  was  nearly  off  her  legs. 
Her  legs  were  all  covered  with  scabs.  That  was  called 
mud  fever;  all  scratched  with  sharp  currj^comb  and 
swelled.  Let  us  get  her  in  the  barn.  She  is  all  wet 
with  sweat.  Cover  up  warm  and  feed.  Another  good 
job  for  to-night.  Hurry  to  the  shop.  It  ia  getting 
dark.  Folks  waiting;  all  in  a  hurry  to  get  home. 
Hurry  up!  Shoe  three  or  four  horses;  each  has  a 
little  tinkering  job  to  do,  and  before  they  are  all  away 
it  is  an  hour  after  dark.  Do  you  suppose  you  got  a 
good  job?  I  think  not.  Do  you  think  the  weight 
was  equal  on  all  of  the  heels  of  those  horses?  If  you 
do  it  would  not  make  it  so,  and  if  it  was  it  would  not 
stay  so  long,  about  which  I  have  already  written  and 
the  consequences. 

By  golly  1  in  this  hurry  I  liked  to  forgot  that  poor 
suffering  horse  I  just  got.     I  must  go  and  see  her. 


*Sty  THE  hoese's  kescue. 

On  follows  four  or  five  to  see  too.  They  all  want  to 
see,  and  I  wanted  them  to.  I  found  her  just  as  I  ex- 
pected to,  lying  down.  I  walked  in,  looked  to  see  if 
she  had  eat  her  feed.  It  wp.s  not  touched.  "Did  yon 
kick  her  up?  "  I  did  not.  "  Did  any  one  kick  her?  " 
No;  if  they  had,  they  might  have  got  it  back,  for 
self-protection  is  the  first  law  of  nature.  This  horse 
was  down,  unable  to  help  herself;  but  before  I  can 
remove  the  cause  of  her  suffering,  I  must  get  her  up. 
I  touched  her  on  her  hind  parts  ;  she  was  sore  all  over. 
I  succeeded  in  getting  her  on  her  feet.  Of  all  the  sore 
horses  I  ever  saw,  all  produced  from  a  small  cause,  she 
was  the  cap-sheaf.  Of  course  that  called  out  remarks, 
opinions,  and  beliefs,  and  not  much  knowledge,  but  a 
great  deal  of  talk. 

"  Doan,  I  guess  that  black  man  has  waxed  it  to  you 
this  time." 

Sam  was  black.  Some  one  said  she  was  chest 
foundered ;  some  one  thing,  some  another,  and  all  dis- 
agreed. 1  well  knew  they  had  no  knowledge  where 
the  cause  was,  neither  did  they  know  where  the  effect 
was.  I  told  them  I  would  have  her  out  on  the  road 
in  four  days,  and  she  would  have  as  good  knee  action 
as  a  colt  That  is  rather  short  time.  I  told  them 
what  was  the  matter  with  her,  as  I  always  have;  but 
thgy  do  not  seem  to  see  it  as  I  do.  At  it  I  went.  At 
that  time  I  did  not  have  as  much  knowledge  of  the 
horse  as  I  have  now. 

If  you  will  sail  with  me  through  this  \v<  rk.  I  will 

do  all  of  the  work.  You  look  on  ;  understand  ?  I 
am  shoeing  cripples  and  all  kinds  through  the  day 
and  sometimes  the  night,  and  it's  night  now ;  but  this 


THE   horse's   rescue.  37 

poor  horse  must  be  helped  to-night.     I  must  have  two 
quarts  of  whisky.     That  is  uot  to  be  had  short  of  twr> 
miles.     I  got  it.      I  did    not  drive  this  cripple,  and 
told  short  stories.     I  am  home  now,  but  before  I  com- 
mence I  will  tell  you  where   the  cause  of  this  poor 
horse's  suffering  was  located,  and  what  the  effect  was, 
and  where  and  how  I  removed  it,  and  that  is  what  you 
want  to  know  and  I  want  you  to  know.     This  is  what 
this  long   story  is  told  for,  and  it  is  wdiat  they  are  all 
told  for.     This  mare  had  a  small,  round,  thin-shelled, 
flat  foot,  when  natural ;  low  heels.    Let  us  take  a  peek 
at  those  shoes.     Golly  I  that  is  all  wrong  ;  that  shoe  is 
not  the  shape  of  the  foot ;  not  wide  enough  across  the 
quarter.     It  is  too  wide  at  the   heels.     It  is  a  long, 
clevis-shape;  yes;  and  it's  too  long.     So  is  the  foot; 
and  the  toe  is  too  peaked,  and  the  toe-cork  is  too  high 
for  the  heels.     "Can't  you  find  a  little  more  fault?" 
Yes.     The  web  is  too  narrow  and  too  thick  for  such 
feet.     "Is  that  all?"     No;  let  us  take  this  shoe  off 
and  look  on  the  other  side  and  see  what  we  find  there. 
It's  not  concave;  it's  dishing  clear  around  to  heel — 
bent  instead  of  being  hammered,  and  no  flat  rest;  and 
yet  it  sits  hard  on  the  sole.     Let  us  examine  these 
feet.     The   toe  is  one  inch   and  a  quarter  too  long. 
That   should   be  cut  off.     It  is  nothing  but  useless 
shell ;  it  needs  paring  some.     Let  uslook  at  the  heels. 
These  heels  are  too  low.     They  are  all  mutihited  and 
break  down,  caused  by  the  shoe  not  resting  on  the 
heel  ani  not  having  a  flat  rest  on   the  shoe  at  heel. 
What  else?  Being  to  )  wide,  it  formed  a  lever  i)urchase 
across  the  quarter  and  warps   the  foot.     Let  us  look 
and  see  if  the  heels  are  contrGCted.     Not  much.     We 


SS  THE    HOKSB'S    rescue. 

will  pare  the  foot  so  the  shoe  will  rest  only  on  shell 
until  we  corne  to  the  heel.  Leave  brace  in,  pare  flat, 
and  fit  all  around — no  springing  business  about  it. 
Well,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  those  low  heels? 
It  is  getting  cold  here  ;  we  canH  wait  for  those  heels 
to  grow.  They  must  be  raised  to-night.  Won't  to- 
morrow do  as  well  ?  There  will  be  a  lot  more  horses 
to  the  shop  to-morrow,  and  there  will  be  no  time.  It's 
fearful  cold  here.  I  guess  you  can  stand  the  cold. 
Let  us  go  to  the  shop  and  make  a  pair  of  shoes  for 
this  horse.  What  sort  of  shoe  shall  we  make  for  this 
horse  to  relieve  him  ?  In  his  present  condition  he  is 
braced  out ;  head  down;  chest  sunken  in;  shoulders 
dropped  back  ;  great  strain  on  back  tendons  or  cords; 
the  heels  are  even  at  top  ;  the  sole  is  a  little  raised  up. 
She  should  stand  back  of  straight  comfortable.  That 
will  be  all  we  can  do  to-night.  We  will  make  a  shoe 
with  wide  web,  at  toe  quite  wide ;  very  thin  at  toe ; 
one  inch  thick  at  heel ;  taper  from  center  of  toe  to 
heel.  It  should  be  made  as  light  as  possible ;  thinned 
an  trued  so  as  to  reduce  weight ;  wide  where  the  heels 
rest ;  concave  clear  out  to  nail  holes ;  holes  in  shoe 
close  to  edge.  This  concave  should  stop  at  about  one 
inch  and  a  half  from  the  heel.  The  brace  should  be 
cut  away  slanting  toward  the  frog.  We  want  to  get 
the  sole  down  by  the  weight  of  the  horse.  That  ex- 
pands the  foot.  The  shoe  should  be  made  full  acros^s 
the  quarter;  it  is  too  narrow.  It  has  been  cut  off. 
Get.the  colt's  foot  in  shape — round,  easy  toe  to  rise  on ; 
good  length  shoe,  not  stuck  out  at  heel.  Let  us  go  to 
the  barn.  I  am  getting  somewhat  tired.  It  is  awful 
cold  here,  too.     These  shoes  were  made  by  eye  and 


TJJE    HORE'-^'S    RESCUJg.  89 

measuring  the  foot.  Now  tliis  is  a  hard  job  for  me 
and  the  liorse.  She  has  got  to  stand  on  one  foot.  It 
must  be  done.  Get  two  nails  in,  and  let  the  foot  down. 
Back  goes  the  foot,  and  the  leg  with  it.  Of  course 
now  she  can  stand  better.  The  strain  is  off  the  back 
tendons,  Now  lean  set  the  other  shoe  easier.,  Down 
goes  the  foot  back  of  straight.  Finish  this  job  off  quite 
easy.  Now  I  feel  better,  and  the  horse  too.  It  mat- 
ters not  what  this  animal  is  called,  horse  or  mare.  It 
is  a  mare.     It  is  principle  I  am  working  on. 

I  must  tell  you  how  the  nails  are  in  this  shoe ;  two 
are  in  the  toe,  six  in  all.  None  back  of  the  widest 
part  of  the  foot.  No  corks  on  this  shoe.  That  suits 
me.  My  golly!  her  head  and  neck  have  gone  up. 
Look  here  !  that  hollow  is  all  gone  in  her  breast,  and  she 
sticks  out  right  pliimp  and  full.  It  is  getting  late.  It 
It  is  not  so  cold  as  it  was.  I  have  removed  the  cause 
and  cured  "  chest  founder."  The  heart  is  not  affected, 
as  I  have  been  told.  She  is  eating  hay;  that's  a  big 
thing.  It  will  be  daylight  soon.  I  must  hurry  up.  I 
want  some  warm,  soft  water.  We  will  have  to  go  to 
the  liouse,  build  a  fire,  and  warm  some  water.  Get 
t'iat  whisky,  castile  soap,  and  sponge,  and  back  to 
the  barn  again.  These  scabs  must  all  come  off  clean 
and  lean  all  over. 

It  is  a  good  time,  while  I  think  of  it,  to  say  that  I 
never  use  a  currycomb.  A  stiff  brush  is  all  I  want, 
brushing  always  the  way  the  hair  lies.  Wash  off  ma- 
nure. 

I  must  rub  the  mare  dry,  and  wash  her  all  over  with 
whiskey  with  a  sponge,  and  rub  dry  three   or  four 


40  THE  hopvSe's  rescue. 

times.  Rub  lightly,  put  on  a  light  blanket,  and  make 
her  a  good,  soft,  dry  bed. 

Gracious  heavens  !  It  is  daylight,  time  to  feedj  and 
I  want  my  breakfast,  too. 

"  Hello !  Doaii ;  sharpen  these  horses ;  have  them 
done  in  an  hoar  ?" 

**Yes." 

I  want  to  say  here  that  whiskey  had  nothing  to  do 
with  curino;  that  mare's  stiffness.  It  miorht  have  made 
her  feel  better,  and  it  might  have  helped  take  out  the 
soreness.  But  it  was  the  work  done  on  the  feet  that 
cured  her.  Castile  soap  and  water  was  all  I  needed  to 
cure  her  scabby  legs.  Water  v/ould  have  cleaned  them. 
I  have  cured  hundreds  since,  and  used  no  whisky;  all 
I  use  is  water.  It  is  science,  principle.  I  wanted  to 
make  the  mare  comfortable,  so  she  could  lie  down  and 
rest  and  sleep.  All  should  do  the  same.  If  the 
horse  could  talk  in  a  language  that  we  could  under- 
stand, you  would  hear  louder  bugling  than  you  ever 
heard  from  me.  You  would  think  that  it  was  the 
judgment-day,  and  that  the  supreme  court  of  heaven 
was  in  session. 

I  use  the  word  "cure  "  in  this  book  because  it  is  in 
common  use,  to  convey  what  we  are  talking  about.  It 
is  all  well  enough  ;  but  I  do  not  cure  these  horses — I 
remove  the  cause  and  nature  repairs  the  damages. 
When  I  go  at  a  horse  to  fix  him  up,  I  look  him  over 
and  do  all  I  can  that  will  make  him  comfortable. 

The  day's  work  is  done  in  the  shop.  It  has  been  a 
hard  road  all  day,  I  tell  you.  In  all  stages  of  suffer- 
ing I  have  helped  some,  and  I  have  made  some  worse, 
whicli   I  well  knew  ;  but  I  did   the  best  I  could  for 


THE    horse's    rescue.  41 

them  and  the  owner.     Their  feet  were  in  all  kinds  of 
conditions. 

By  George  !  in  tliis  hubbub  I  was  likely  to  forget 
my  mare  in  the  barn.  I  said  before  that  I  had  cured 
her,  and  she  had  not  been  out  of  the  stall  yet.  But 
I  have  removed  the  cause,  or  part  of  it.  I  have  got  to 
polish  her  off  yet.  Let  us  go  to  the  barn,  move  her 
around  on  the  floor,  and  see  how  she  acts.  She  must 
be  exercised  moderately  at  first.  The  change  is  so 
great  she  hardly  knows  how  to  use  her  legs.  She  will 
soon  recover  from  that.  She  has  been  changed  from 
natural  so  Ion  of,  and  her  cords  are  out  of  harmonv,  she 
can  hardlv  control  herself;  but  she  does  not  suffer. 
Her  soreness  is  nearly  all  gone. 

I  will  right  here  say  to  the  readers  of  this  work,  in 
this  sail  working  on  the  horse,  I  am  alone  in  this  barn  ; 
all  are  quietly  sleeping.  My  talk  is  directed  to  you, 
reader,  and  I  want  you  to  go  with  me,  if  you  will,  and 
pay  close  attention.  I  will  give  you  the  biggest  and 
the  most  instructive  lesson  you  ever  had  on  the  horse. 

Let  us  sponge  the  mare's  legs,  shoulders,  and  loins 
with  whisky;  rub  dry  each  time;  repeat  this  three  or 
four  times;  take  her  out-doors;  run  with  her  awhile. 
Again  in  the  barn,  rub  her  legs  and  shoulders  an  hour 
or  two.  Let  us  drive  her  in  harness.  Now  I  can  ride. 
Before  we  take  this  ride  I  will  say  I  packed  this 
horse's  feet.  These  were  dried  up  with  fever,  caused 
bv  unnatural  strain  on  the  cords  which  fasten  in  feet. 
Let  us  look  at  the  bottom  of  tlie  feet.  The  frog  does 
not  touch  the  ground  yet.  That's  all  right  in  this 
case.  It  is  a  little  lower  than  the  shoe-heels.  When 
the  foot  is  on  the  floor,  look !  she  stands  her  fore  legs 


42  THE    HOKSE's    rescue. 

buck  straight,  Where  is  the  weight  now?  It  is 
nearly  in  the  center  of  the  foot  That's  right.  Don't 
be  ill  a  hurry;  we  will  take  a  sail  after  this  horse 
soon.  We  are  experimenting  now.  There  is  some- 
thing more,  before  we  start,  to  be  looked  to.  I  told 
3^ou  when  we  dressed  this  foot  to  prepare  it  for  the 
shoe  we  must  have  the  brace  slanting  a  little  down 
toward  the  frog,  and  have  a  flat  rest  on  the  shoe-heel. 
Now  the  shoe  rests  on  the  shell  all  around,  and  it  is 
up  from  the  sole.  Where  is  that  foot-hook?  Let  us 
clean  out  everything  under  that  shoe  clear  out  to 
nails.  Have  the  hook  thin.  The  foot  is  middling  sof  t<. 
Pile  in.  Let  us  have  a  sail  after  this  mare.  Thunder ! 
how  cold  it  is.  Yes,  it  is,  but  we  can  stand  it  to  ride 
four  or  six  miles,  I  guess.  G-^-lly !  she  moves  finely. 
Look  at  that  knee  action.  See  where  her  head  is. 
Whoa;  let  us  get  her  in  the  barn  ;  cover  her  up  after 
she  eets  done  steaminof.  Let  us  look  at  the  bottom  of 
the  feet  to  see  what  we  can  find.  There  !  that  frog  is 
down  even  with  the  heel  of  the  shoe.  Let  us  look  at 
the  foot  at  the  heel,  and  that  sits  fiat  on  the  flat  rest 
on  shoe.  Let  us  look  at  the  bottom.  This  foot  is 
not  as  cupping  as  it  was.  How  is  that  ?  Look  at  heel 
of  foot  where  it  rests  on  heel  of  shoe.  It  is  spread  a 
little.  What  did  that?  Before  we  took  this  i-ide  the 
sole  was  raised  up,  as  I  have  explained  before,  and  the 
structure  of  the  foot  was  changed  from  natural.  I 
prepared  the  foot  and  shoe  for  the  operation.  The 
weifrht  of  the  horse  is  in  the  center  of  the  foot.  The 
drive  settled  the  sole  down  in  the  cup  or  top  of  hoof, 
and  when  the  sole  is  down  in  its  natural  place^  all  is 
in  harmony  of  action.     It  should  in  no  case  go  below 


THE    HORSfi'S    RESCUE.  4S 

flat  It  would  not  kill  the  horse,  but  it  would  be 
out  of  harmonj,  for  nature  has  formed  the  foot^ 
"When  natural,  the  sole  is  arching  and  the  frog  intended 
to  rest  on  the  ground;  but  these  changes  are  con- 
stantly going  on  in  greater  or  less  degrees.  It  does 
not  affect  the  horse's  shoulders  as  bad  to  have  the 
sole  go  down  below  natural,  that  is,  get  rounding  on 
the  bottom.  It  lets  up  on  the  back  tendons.  It  never 
would  go  down  if  the  frog  could  rest  on  the  ground. 
When  it  rises  it  effect  is  terrible.  Let  us  examine  this 
horse  we  are  at  work  on.  Now  the  frog  is  down  on 
the  ground ;  the  sole  is  down  or  nearly  so  ;  let  us  try 
her  and  see  how  far  back  we  can  put  her  foot  and  have 
it  sit  flat  down  on  the  heel  and  not  hurt  her.  Seel 
she  can  put  it  back  from  the  point  where  her  foot  was 
when  we  commenced  on  her,  four  feet  and  a  half. 
That's  boss!  It's  cold,  and  it  is  three  o'clock.  Let  us 
eo  to  the  house.  This  horse  wants  rest.  So  do  I. 
Give  her  good  bed  ;  build  a  fire.  There  is  no  use  go* 
intr  to  bed,  it's  so  late,  and  there  will  soon  be  a  lot  of 
horses  here  to  be  shod  ;  and  there  will  be  no  peace. 
Sleep  by  the  stove  a  little  !• 

"Hello,  Doan  ;  shoe  these  horses?  " 

"Yes,  I  will  be  there  as  soon  as  I  swallow  a  mouth- 
ful." 

"  This  mare  is  lame  forward.  She  interferes  behind  ; 
she  stumbles.  She  never  interfered,  and  never  was 
lame  until  after  that  damned  Bloom  shod  her." 

Let  us  look  her  over. 

"How  long  has  she  been  shod." 

"  It  is  not  over  six  months,  and  the  shoes  are  all 
clattering  now." 


44  THE    horse's    rescue. 

Well,  what  about  this  one?  She  is  stiff.  It  hurts 
her  to  go  down  hill,  and  she  falls  down  once  in  a 
while,  and  it  hurts  her  to  go  up  hill.  And  when  she 
first  starts  off  she  straddles  out  behind.  Warm  her 
up,  then  she  goes  better,  but  it  hurts  her  when  she  gets 
up  in  the  morning.     She  is  awful  sore  then. 

"  Tom  Jones  sent  me  here ;  he  said  vour  were  a 
good  shoer.  Some  think  she  is  strained  across  the 
loins." 

"Well,  it  does  have  that  appearance.'' 

Of  course  I  am  at  work  at  them  all  of  the  time.  I 
left  one  of  that  kind  in  this  book.  I  shall  go  and  see 
him  one  of  these  days.  Let  us  shoe  this  one  we 
looked  over  first. 

"  I  want  long  corks  on  them  ;  I  am  going  to  hauling 
wood,  and  I  want  a  good  big  cork  on,  so  they  will  last. 
Those  corks  that  Bloom  put  on  are  all  off  now\" 

"All  right."  This  lame  foot  is  about  one  inch 
longer  than  its  mate.  What  is  this?  the  hair  is  all  off 
on  the  back  side  of  his  leg." 

"Well,  I  blistered  his  cords;  they  are  sore." 

"I  see  they  are.     Did  it  help  him  any?" 

"No."  •     • 

"Have  you  tried  anything  more?' 

"  Yes,  I  put  on  whisky,  skunks'  grease,  and  angle- 
worm oil." 

"No  good?  Why,  you  have  been  at  work  in  the 
wrong  place.  That  is  the  effect.  The  hind  feetare  in  the 
same  condition,  only  worse.  The  nails  stick  out  and 
cut  like  a  knife,  and  it  affects  across  the  loins  and  the 
kidnevs.  This  is  a  flat  foot,  however.  The  sole  is 
down  ;  the  foot  is  spread  out  over  the  shoe." 


THE   horse's   rescue.  ..         45 

These  poor  cripples  are  coming  and  going  while  I 
am  sitting  bv  the  window  over  my  shop  writing  this 
work,  and  it  bothers  me,  but  I  must  do  it. 

Well,  let  us  fix  this  lame  foot.  Let  us  work  on 
principle,  and  see  how  that  will  work.  Let  us  shorten 
that  lever  purchase.  How  much  ?  Tliat  foot  has 
been  shod  six  months;  and  the  toe  was  too  peaked 
when  it  was  shod^-  and  it  was  left  about  three-quarters 
of  an  inch  too  long  then.  It  has  been  growing  ever 
since.  It  takes  about  one  year  for  a  foot  to  grow 
from  the  hair  down.  This  foot,  when  natural,  from 
hair  down,  would  be  about  five  inches.  It  has  grown 
half  a  year,  and  was  about  one  inch  too  long  when 
shod.  According  to  this  figuring,  this  foot  is  three 
inches  and  a  half  too  long.  That  is  a  trifle  too  much. 
Let  us  do  away  with  that  lever  purchase  by  shorten- 
ing the  foot.  We  better  raise  the  heels  a  little,  for  it 
is  going  to  grow  longer.  It  is  growing  now;  but  we 
cannot  see  it.  Now  it  is  shod.  See  where  his  foot  is 
x^ow — back  of  straight,  weight  in  center.  •  Sore  some; 
it  will  be  all  right  in  ten  days,  I  will  warrant  for  a 
cent.  The  same  all  round  ;  like  causes  produce  like 
effects.  We  have  got  this  foot  fixed.  Let  us  walk 
him  around.  Golly !  we  have  lamed  him  on  the 
otber  foot.  The  fact  is,  he  was  lame  on  both.  The 
lever  was  the  longest  on  the  one  we  fixed  first.  That 
is,  this  principle  effects  all  horses,  shod  or  not,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree.  This  is  a  flat  foot.  I  have 
changed  him  some,  and  that  effects  him.  He  does 
hardly  know  how  to  use  his  legs.  His  ankles  are  a 
little  weak,  caused  by  this  sudden  change.  Exercise 
will  soon  bring  him  out  all  right     Yet,  with  all  this 


46        «  THE  horse's  rescue. 

work,  he  is  not  natural.  But  this  is  the  best  that  can 
be  done  with  him-^shoeing  him.  Try  him.  Place 
his  foot  back  as  far  as  you  can  from  point  where  his 
foot  now  stands,  and  that  is  back  of  straight.  You 
can  see  he  cannot  get  his  foot  down  flat  on  heel  more 
than  two  feet,  and  the  corks  are  higher 'than  the  toe 
cork,  a  little.  How  is  this,  the  heels  are  pinched  in, 
and  the  structure  is  changed  enough  to  cause  that,  and 
I  cannot  fix  it  shoeing. 

I  have  cured  thousands  of  this  kind  of  feet  of  lame- 
ness, and  the  owners  were  well  pleased  and  talked  for 
me  ;  and  I  will  thank  them  right  here.  This  work  is 
for  them  and  all  mankind  and  the  suffering  horse ;  and 
when  you  read  this  work  do  not  take  any  offense,  for 
it  is  not  intended  to  ridicule.  I  have  thought  of  writ- 
ing this  wci'k  for  nine  years.  How  to  convey  it  in  a 
book  I  could  not  study  out,  for  I  talked  and  explained 
continually.  They  did  not  learn  much  and  worked. 
I  have  taken  this  way  of  explaining  my  methods  of 
treatment  because  there  is  no  other  way  of  giving  the 
information  I  wish  to  convey.  It  is  all  meant  for 
your  interest  and  that  of  your  poor,  suffering  Horses. 

Well,  we  have  not  got  that  horse  done  j^et  His 
foot  is  growing.  He  will  go  very  well  for  a  while,  and 
you  will  hear  from  that  lever  purchase  if  you  let  it  get 
too  long.     I  am  done  with  him. 

Next!  This  horse  I  do  not  like  to  tackle.  It  is  a 
hard  job,  but  I  can  help  him  a  little.  He  has  got  it 
bad,  but  it  must  be  done.  It  will  make  us  both  sweat 
before  we  get  through.  This  horse  has  a  thickshelled 
cup  foot  He  has  got  cold  standing  here.  We  should 
have  shod  him  first  while  he  was  warm.      Can't  shoe 


THE   horse's  rescue.  47 

them  Jill  while  they  are  warm ;  there  are  so  many. 
Some  must  wait.  "Stand  around  here!"  Thunder! 
how  he  straddles  !"  "  Back  !"  How  he  raises  up  his 
feet!  and  he  drags  them  before  they  leave  the  floor. 
They  do  not  go  up  very  quicfk ;  if  they  did  I  should 
think  he  had  spring-halt.  There  is  not  much 
"spring  "  motion  about  it.  I  have  a  mind  to  leave 
him  with  the  other  I  left  in  this  book  until  I  come 
around  again.  I  can't  help  him  much.  I  do  not 
think  he  can  stand  on  three  legs ;  and,  worse  than  all^ 
he  has  got  two  sets  of  feet  on  him.  for  they  were  not  hal  I 
cut  down  when  they  were  shod  last,  which  was  six 
months  ago,  and  they  are  hard  as  a  stone.  I  won't 
back  out;  that's  not  my  name.  I  think  we  had  better 
shoe  him  on  his  forward  feet  first.  He  can't  stand  un- 
til we  do,  he  is  so  changed  from  natural,  and  all  is  so 
out  of  liarmony. 

"  How  old  is  this  horse  ?" 

"  He  is  nineteen  years  old." 

"  How  long  have  you  owned  him?'* 

"I  raised  him  from  a  colt." 

"  Have  you  ever  doctored  him  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes;  I  have  tried  everything  most." 

"  His  chest  has  fallen  in  some  ;  that  looks  like  chest 
founder." 

"  It  is  not  that.  I  have  always  taken  care  of  my 
horses  myself,  and  never  feed  them  when  they  are 
warm ;  and  no  man  drives  my  horses,  they  don't." 

"Has  one  man  shod  them  all  of  the  time  ?" 

"No,  since  be  got  stiff  I  have  been  to  a  good  many 
shoers." 

"  They  help  him  any  ?" 


^  ,**.:,-■ 


48  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

^^'No ;  they  say  yoa  can  cure  these  horses  by  shoe- 


ing. 


"I  can  help  some  of  them  for  a  while.  I  can  help 
this  one  a  little." 

This  horse  is  different  from  the  one  just  shod.  His 
feet  are  cup  feet.      His  shoulders  are  perished  some. 

'^  Yes  ;  some  say  he  is  sweenied." 

*'  Ever  doctor  them  ?" 

"Yes;  we  inflated  him." 

"What's  that?" 

"Pull  the  skin  up  like  this,  all  loose;  cut  a  little 
hole  in ;  jerk  it  back  and  forward,  and  it  will  fill  up 
■with  wind.  Well,  it  made  it  look  full,  and  plump,  and 
soft.     Before  I  got  home  it  was  all  gone  down  again." 

"  How  much  did  it  cost  you  ?" 

"  A  dollar.  I've  paid  out  lots  of  money  doctoring 
this  horse,  and  he  gets  worse  every  da3^  and  I  have  to 
doctor  his  water-works  every  little  while  now." 

"I  see  his  shoulders  have  been  blistered  " 

"Yes;  I've  blistered  them  and  his  cords  on  the 
backside  of  his  legs  and  across  his  loin." 

"Ever  try  setons?" 

"  Yes,  in  both  shoulders,  and  I  had  him  roweled  in 
the  breast,  and  a  fellow  told  me  to  cut  the  skin  open 
on  the  shoulders  and  take  smoked  meat  rinds,  put 
them  in,  and  sew  them  up,  and  let  them  rot  out;  that 
was  a  sure  cure  for  sweeny." 

"That  help  him?" 

"  ISTo." 

"  What  do  you  give  him  for  his  water  now?'* 

"Turpentine."  j 

"How  mucli  at  a  time?** 


THE  horse's  rescue.  49 

*'  Half  a  pint  once  a  week,  and  I  keep  rosin  in  his 
feed-box  all  of  the  time." 

"I  see  his  legs  are  swelled," 

"Yes." 

"  Do  anything  for  that?" 

"Yes.  I  have  used  gargling  oil,  Anderson's  derm- 
adore,  liniments,  and  all  kinds  of  liniments  I  could 
hear  of." 

"  I  see  he  is  sore  under  his  fetlocks." 

"Yes;  that  is  scratches." 

"  Ever  done  anything  for  them  ?" 

"  Yes  ;  I  have  tried  all  kinds  of  salves  I  could  think 
of,  and  I  bound  live  toads  under  his  fetlocks;  and  a 
fellow  told  me  to  make  a  poultice  of  human  dung." 

"Well,  how  did  that  work?" 

"  It  drew  out  the  inflammation." 

"Did  it?" 

"  Yes  ;   when  I  put  it  on  every  few  days." 
-  "  I  see  some  enlargements  here," 

"Those  are  wind-puffs.  They  don't  hurt  him  any. 
Some  say  the  cause  of  these  legs  swelling  is  yellow 
water." 

"  I  know  they  do.  Did  you  ever  give  him  anything 
for  that  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  have." 

"  Help  him  ?" 

"  No." 

"  It  does  have  that  appearance,^  looking  him  over. 
What  is  this  inside?     He  is  swelled  here  and  sore." 

"  I  never  saw  that  before.  That  is  called  the  sec- 
ond stifle  by  some.  Yes,  he  has  strained  himself  prob- 
ably getting  up." 


bO  THE    horse's    rescue. 

"  What  is  this  up  here?  He  sinks  down  here  over 
tlie  whirl  hone.     Ever  do  anvtliins:  for  tliat?" 

"Yes;  I  put  on  different  kinds  of  Jiniment  and 
lien  ted  it  in  with  hot  irons." 

"Did  that  help  him?" 

''I  don't  know  as  it  did." 

''  What  are  those  marks  on  the  inside  of  his  legs?" 

"  I  had  him  fired — burnt ;  thej  say  that  makes  them 
stronger. 

'•  He  seems  weak  on  his  hind  lesrs.  What  are  these 
enlargements  here?" 

''They  call  them  blood-spavins;  some  call  them 
bog-spavins." 

"What  is  this?" 

"Well,  thev  sav  them  are  curbs" 

"  What  is  this  in  here?" 

"Oh,  that's  nothing  but  thoroughpin." 

"Ever  do  anything  for  these  diflQculties?" 

"Yes." 

"Did  it  help  them?" 

"  I  can't  see  as  it  has." 

"Well,  we  can't  stand  here  long.  We  must  get 
these  horses  put  of  here.  It  will  soon  be  dark.  I 
have  got  a  job  at  the  barn  to-night  on  that  Kentucky 
hunter  mare.  Well,  we  may  as  well  tackle  this  horse. 
Take  up  !  Thunder  !  this  horse's  feet  are  contracted. 
Didn't  you  know  that  ?" 

"  They  told  me  they  were." 

"Did  you  ever  do  anything  for  them  ?" 

"  Yes.  J[  have  used  lots  of  foot  ointment  and  salves 
to^make  them  grow  fast." 

"  Well,  I  think  that  did  make  them  grow.     I  guess 


THE    horse's    rescue.  61 

that  is  a  good  thing.  It  is  about  eight  inches 
from  the  top  of  the  coronet  to  the  toe  on  these  feet  all 
around.  Did  jou  have  irons  on  his  feet  when  you 
used  this  stuff?" 

''Yes." 

"  Well,  I  think  they  grew  a  little  too  fast.  Where 
did  you  put  this  ointment  you  used  r'' 

"  Well,  I  made  a  mark  all  around  the  foot  just  be- 
low the  hair,  on  the  hoof,  and  I  put  it  below  the 
mark." 

"Did  you  put  any  on  the  inside?  " 

"  Yes  ;  on  the  sole." 

"Did  you  get  any  on  the  frog?" 

"No." 

"  Didn't  you  know  that  in  putting  this  trash  on  horn 
or  hoof  that  was  already  grown  there  was  danger  of 
making  it  grow  too  fast  ?" 

"No,  I  did  not." 

"  Didn't  vou  ?  Didn't  you  know  there  was  a  receipt 
out  to  prevent  it  growing  in  case  it  should  get  to  grow- 
ing too  fast  ?" 

"No." 

"  Well,  there  is,  and  they  should  always  accompany 
each  other,  for  they  are  dangerous  to  be  used  separ- 
ately. This  is  a  fast  age  in  which  we  live.  I  read  a 
receipt  the  other  day  that  would  make  a  foot  grow  out 
from  the  hair  down  to  its  natural  length  in  six  weeks. 
The  natural  growth  of  the  hoof  is  about  one  year  when 
healthy,  and  no  fever  in  it;  and  this  is  not  all— with 
irons  on  it  could  not  expand,  and  that  would  incline 
it  to  grow  long  and  narrow.  And  at  this  rate  of 
growth  a  horse  could  be  grown  up  from  the  time  it 


52  THE   horse's   rescue. 

was  born  in  twenty-four  weeks  to  four  years  old.   That 
would  excel  the  creator.'' 

I  will  show  the  effect  of  long  feet  before  1  get 
through  this  work.  Let  us  go  on  with  this  examina- 
tion of  this  horse. 

"This  hoiS3  ever  been  bled  in  plait  vein?" 

"Yes." 

"Help  him?" 

"No." 

"Ever  been  nerved?" 

"Yes." 

"Help  him?" 

"No." 

"  What  are  these  scabs  on  here?" 

"I  had  the  wind  puffs  cut  open  to  let  the  wind  out." 

"  They  are  sore  yet  ?" 

"Yes." 

"Let  us  try  him  and  see  if  he  can  stand  on  one  for 
ward  leg  while  we  get  the  shoe  off  the  other." 

It  has  High  corks  on  the  heel  to  raise  it  to  take  the 
strain  off  cords  now  He  can't  stand  down  on  heel. 
It  is  lower  with  the  shoe  off.  Well,  we  must  work  on 
this  foot  until  we  get  it  fixed  or  we  will  have  him 
down.  There  will  have  to  be  some  judgment  used  in 
shortening  the  lever  purchase  on  this  horse  with  all 
this  contraction  ;  forward  legs  braced  out  at  least  one 
and  a  half  feet  from  point  where  the}'  should  be,  and 
his  hind  feet  shoved  for^-ard  under  his  belly  about  the 
same  distance  and  from  the  same  cause,  and  run  over 
at  that;  gambrels  bowed  out;  toes  in  ;  hind  feet  hud- 
dled together.  This  horse  weighs  twelve  hundred  ; 
weight  two-thirds,  thrown  back  on  his  hind  legs.    Now 


THE    HORSES    RESCUE.  63 

this  horse  has  got  to  be  balanced  in  some  way  to 
equalize  his  weight.  Shorten  that  lever  on  toe,  and 
fret  his  weiorht  in  center  of  foot,  on  all  of  his  feet,  or 
nearly  so,  by  dressing  foot,  or  preparing  shoe,  or  by 
both. 

"  Well,  Joe,  you  are  too  tall ;  you  will  raise  him  too 
much  ;  it  will  tip  him  over.  I  will  try  him.  This 
foot  has  got  corns?" 

^' Yes ;  I  had  them  dug  out  and  tar  burnt  in." 

"  They  are  sore  now  ?" 

^'Yes." 

"Ever  do  anything  more  to  them?" 

*'I  put  in  spirits  of  salts  and  butter  of  antimony." 

"Cure  them?" 

"Ko." 

"  What  is  this  hole  in  the  toe  ?" 

"A  veterinarian  said  he  was  foundered ;  bleeding  in 
the  toe  would  cure  him." 

"  How  much  blood  did  he  take  from  him?" 

"  Five  quarts  from  each  toe." 

"Well,  what  else?" 

"  He  corked  it  with  tar  and  tow,  and  burnt  it  in  with 
a  hot  iron." 

"Cure  him?" 

"No." 

"  We  will  never  get  this  horse  shod  if  we  do  not 
quit  examining  them.   What  is  this  hole  in  this  foot?" 

"  Well,  a  fellow  told  me  to  bore  a  hole  in  the  bot- 
tom of  his  foot  and  fill  it  up  with  turpentine.  It 
would  cure  him." 

"  Bid  you  ?" 

"Yes." 


54  THE   hokse's  eescue. 

"Cure  him?" 

"Ko." 

"  Well,  tliis  shoe  is  on  at  last.  The  weight  is  in 
center  nearly.  His  knee  is  a  little  weak,  but  I  guess 
he  is  about  balanced  on  that  foot.  Let  us  shoe  the 
other." 

".What  is  this  cutting  around  the  coronet  or  top  of 

hoof?" 

"  A  veterinarian  told  me  the  coronet  band  was  too 
tio-ht  It  should  be  cut  so  as  to  give  it  room  to  ex- 
pand  ?" 

"Did  it  help  him? 

"No." 

"  That  operation  of  spreading  the  foot  by  fitting 
the  shoe  wider  than  the  foot,  so  you  could  see  the  nail 
holes  all  around,  commence  at  the  toe  and  starting  all 
of  the  nails  and  driving,  no  matter  how  high,  by  alter- 
nate raps  so  as  to  spread  the  foot  where  it  was  con- 
tracted ;  and  another  process  for  contracting  his  heels 
to  tighten  up  the  coffin-joint  when  it  gets  too  much 
play  ;  that  is,  when  it  gets  to  cutting  through  neglect 
to  oil  ;  and  a  few  other  great  discoveries  on  horses' 
feet,  cost  this  government  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars in  the  time  of  the  Rebellion." 

"  It's  larger  at  the  top  than  it  is  at  the  bottom.  I 
guess  that, let  it  spread." 

"Did  you  take  the  shoes  off  when  you  cut  the 
coronet  band  ?" 

"No." 

"  Were  the  fore  legs  braced  out?" 

"Yes." 

"  If  he  had  stood  up  straight,  as  he  now  does,  it  would 


THE  hokse's  rescue.  55 

spread  faster,  the  weight  being  in  the  center,  with  shoe 
nailed  on  the  bottom.  Don't  you  think  the  bottom 
would  have  been  the  proper  place  to  spread  the  foot?" 

"  Well,  it  does  seem  so.'' 

''  I  have  shod  horses  a  great  many  years,  and  I  have 
never  tried  to  spread  tlje  foot  wider  at  the  top  than  it 
was  at  the  bottom,  but  this  process  was  recommended 
by  Robert  Bonner,  and  I  suppose  it  is  all  right.  This 
horse's  shell  is  thick.  If  it  had  been  thin  there  would 
have  had  to  be  some  plan  studied  out  to  stop  his  foot 
from  splitting  open  in  many  places.  Then  it  would 
want  contraction  a^ain  to  close  the  cracks.  It  is  curi- 
ous  they  could  not  see  the  lever;  that  tip-back 
principle  is  not  seen  by  many  on  horses,  yet  it 
exists,  Vvdiich  I  shall  show  before  I  get  through  this 
work.  I  intend  this  work  to  be  an  eye-opener.  I  am 
wiiting  it  in  the  night,  wiien  all  is  quiet,  all  asleep,  for 
I  am  so  annoyed  through  the  day  I  cannot  write  so 
well. 

These  poor  cripples  are  continually  coming  for  re- 
lief. Of  course  I  tell  them  what  to  do.  They  want 
me  to  do  it.  I  tell  them  I  am  as  stiff  and  sore  as  their 
horses,  and  let  them  go.     This  book  must  be  written. 

Let  us  return  to  the  horse.  He  is  shod  on  the  for- 
ward feet.  He  stands  a  little  back  of  straight.  Let 
us  see  how  strong  he  is  on  his  kness.  Push  him  for- 
ward on  his  knees.  He  is  very  weak,  but  he  is  bal^ 
anced  about  as  well  as  he  can  be  considering  the  con- 
dition his  poor  contracted  feet  are  now  in.  His  toe, 
that  awful  lever  power,  is  growing.  His  knee  will  not 
go  over  with  this  job.  He  feels  better  now,  but  his 
feet  ache  awfully.     Golly  !  in  all  of  this  hubbub,  folks 


5f>  THE   HORSE  S   RESCUE. 

coming  and  going,  horses,  something  the  matter  with 
all  of  them  ;  four  or  five  talking  at  one  time  ;  all  ex* 
pi-essing  their  opinions  and  beliefs;  new  arrivals  all 
through  the  day,  and  late  at  night,  no  two  affected 
alike;  some  from  one  cause,  some  from  another,  all  in 
a  hurry  to  get  home  or  go  to  mill  or  some  other  place. 
To  talk  with  them  all  and  balance  them  all  up  in  good 
shape  so  they  will  not  go  lame  in  six  months,  and 
fail  nine  times  out  of  ten,  is  somewhat  trying. 

Well,  let  us  go  on  with  this  job.  Stand  out  about 
eight  feet  from  this  horse,  take  a  side  view  of  him.  If 
3^ou  have  a  good  sharp  eye,  if  you  are  any  judge  of 
the  horse,  or  even  if  you  are  half  blind,  you  can  see  the 
position  he  is  obliged  to  stand  in.  I  have  fixed  him 
forward,  and  moved  him  back  from  the  point  where 
they  were  when  I  commenced,  at  least  fourteen  inches, 
and  that  is  as  far  as  I  can  get  him  without  tipping  him 
on  his  knees,  with  his  feet  contracted  as  thev  are  now. 
Balancing  deformed  hor«es,  you  will  find  before  we 
get  through  this  sail,  is  quite  a  science;  and  man  will 
have  something  more  to  do  than  to  eat^  sleep,  and 
wear  clothes.  Golly  !  that  makes  me  think  it  is  almost 
night,  and  I  have  not  had  my  dinner. 

Are  you  looking  at  that  horse?  Yes.  If  you  are 
going  to  be  my  pupil  3^ou  must  pay  close  attentior.. 
Where  is -the  weight  of  that  horse?  See  where  his 
hind  feet  stand  now,  and  we  have  not  even  touched 
them  yet.  They  are  all  contracted,  and  eight  inches 
from  the  hair  down  to  point  of  toe.  These  feet  should 
be  moved  back  at  least  eighteen  inches,  to  get  the 
weight  in  the  center  of  the  foot     Of  course,  we  can- 


THE   horse's   rescue.  57 

not  spread  out  his  feet.     We  must  do  the  best  we  can 
as  he  is. 

Spreading  the  foot  with  nails,  that  is,  by  fitting  the 
shoe  so  much  wider  than  the  foot,  I  do  not  like.  I  do 
not  want  to  spread  the  foot  at  the  toe ;  the  heel  is  the 
place.  All  feet  spread  at  the  toes,  on  that  principlej 
would  contract  the  heels;  they  are  contracted  enough 
now.  And  that  is  not  all;  it  would  tear  all  the  shell 
off;  besides,  when  they  get  soaked  soft,  the  shoe, 
shell  and  all,  would  go.  It  is  curious,  is  it  not,  with 
all  of  the  ailments  this  poor  horse  has,  his  doctors 
have  worked  at  the  wrong  place — the  effect?  But  I 
have  not  got  through  looking  him  over  yet.  He 
'^'stands  as  w^e  left  him.  A¥hat  would  be  the  effect  on 
this  horse  if  we  should  leave  him,  and  not  get  his  feet 
back,  so  as  to  have  his  weight  on  the  center  of  his 
foot?  There  is  eight  hundred  weight  on  them  now. 
There  should  be  more  than  half  on  the  fore  legs,  and 
the  horse  weighs  twelve  hundred.  That  lever  is 
rather  long.  In  the  position  he  is  obliged  to  stand 
in  his  hind  legs  are  of  but  little  use.  If  we  take  up 
one  of  them  half  the  weight  must  come  on  the  shoer, 
and  there  will  be  quite  a  struggle  before  that  leg  can 
be  got  in  a  position  to  shoe.  It  has  been  so  a  long 
time,  and  the  horse  is  sore  across  his  kidneys.  His 
hind  parts  are  too  low  for  his  fore  parts.  Look  at 
him  ;  his  back  is  humped,  and  there  is  a  constant 
strain.  All  :s  out  of  harmony,  both  internally  and 
externallv.  This  horse  is  not  as  bad  as  he  will  be 
made  yet  by  these  effect  doctors,  these  veterinarians, 
these  professors  of  great  wisdom.  He  will  stand  a 
little  more  torturing  and  mutilation.     He   is   tough. 


58  THE   horse's   rescue. 

I  can  fix  him  so  he  can  haul  his  half  of  two  cords  of 
green  wood  up  and  down  heavy  hills  a  little  while  j^et, 
and  suffer  night  and  day,  and  I  am  going  to  do  it. 
Come  on,  Oliver,  let  us  try  him.  We  will  have  a 
tough  time.  This  horse  is  finished,  and  he  stands 
well  back  on  his  hind  feet,  shortening  that  lever  by 
dressing  the  foot,  and  raising  heel  of  shoe  a  little 
higher  than  toe.  Look  the  horse  over  if  you  must 
shoe,  not  stand  and  talk  about  shoes.  This  horse 
stands  where  the  weight  should  be — in  center;  he  is 
in  pain,  and  always  will  be,  unless  his  foot  expands; 
and  I  well  know  it  will  not  with  those  irons  on  his 
feet — all  out  of  harmony,  structure  all  changed  from 
natural.  He  steps  short,  and  every  foot  pains  him, 
night  and  day.  Still,  it  looks  well  on  the  outside.  If 
3^ou  want  to  tell  look  at  his  movement. 

Do  you  think  these  two  horses  were  all  we  shod 
that  day?  No,  it  was  not.  Forty -one  years  wrestling 
with  horses  of  all  kinds — I  am  tired.  Good-bye,  poor 
horse,  I  will  come  and  see  you  before  I  get  through 
this  work,  for  I  am  determined  to  find  the  way  out  of 
this  trouble. 

Supper  is  over.  Let  us  go  to  the  barn  and  see  the 
Kentucky  hunter.  By  golly!  Kit,  you  are  looking 
fine.  Her  feet  have  had  packing  iu  them  all  the  time. 
Sponge  over  with  whisky  twice;  rub  dry  each  time. 
We  must  look  this  mare's  hind  parts  over  before  we 
di'ive  her  any  more,  for  we  want  all  to  work  together 
"  in  harmony  of  action."  That  lever  is  too  loi»g.  ■ 
Weiirht  is  back  oi  center  of  foot.  Too  much  strain 
on  back  tendons.  That  must  be  fixed  before  the  mare 
is  di'iven  another  rod.     Lei  us  go  to  the  shop,  pare  the 


THE   horse's  kescue!  -  59 

toe  and  shorten.  The  lieels  are  ]ow  enough.  ^Mie 
structure  is  very  nearly  all  iwht.  Easv  toe  to  ri<e 
on;  narrow  web  shoe;  little  thicker  at  heel..  Short 
corks;  heel  a  little  higher  than  toe.  She  is  shod. 
Take  a  side  view  of  her  now.  She  stands  back  further 
on  her  feet." 

"Is  that  so?" 

!Nro;  her  body  has  gone  forward.  ISTow  her  body 
has  all  gone  forward.  Her  fore  legs  stand  further 
back  of  straight.  The  weight  is  more  equal  on  the 
center  of  foot,  and  sh-e  is  on  her  foundation  or  base, 
and  her  head  has  gone  up  a  little  more.  Let  us  go  to 
the  barn.  Kit,  by  golly,  we  will  make  some  of  the 
great  horsemen's  eyes  stick  cut  on  this  job.  Kit,  we 
are  going  to  take  a  sail  now.  Clean  out  under  shoe. 
This  frog  is  flattening  out.  That's  all  right.  Pile  in. 
Let  us  go  up  on  the  Kidge  road.  That  va  getting  woi-n 
down  smooth.  Let  us  drive  moderate  for  a  while,  and 
let  her  get  used  to  the  change.  It  is  a  little  weaken- 
ing to  be  changed  so  suddenly,  and,  that,  too,  one  end 
at  a  time.  She  will  soon  recover  from  that.  She  is 
changed  toward  natural.  She  is  even  with  herself  in- 
stead of  five  or  six  feet  behind,  which  I  will  show  bv 

ft/ 

cuts,  and  by  principles  that  will  not  lie,  before  I  get 
through  this  work.  Try  yourself,  Kit.  Gollj^ !  see 
how  she  flattens  out.  See  where  her  hind  feet  strike, 
outside  of  her  forward  feet.  All  clear  five  or  six  feet 
ahead.  You  begin  to  be  as  youj-  creator  made  vou. 
To-morrow  is  the  day  you  are  to  show  those  boys 
what  you  can  do.  Whoa  !  Into  the  barn  ;  rub  until 
dry.     Pack  forward  feet.     Gjod,  bright,  clean   hay; 


60  THE  horse's  rescue. 

good,  dry,  soft  bed.  It  is  two  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Let  "US  have  a  little  nap. 

"Where  is  Doan?" 

"  He  has  net  got  up  yet." 

"  Tell  him  to  come  out ;  I  want  to  see  him.  I  want 
these  horses  shod  all  around.  I  am  in  a  hurry.  Don't 
you  get  up  until  this  time  of  day?  You  will  sleep 
your  intellect  all  awav.  I  want  them  shod  all  around 
now.  I  am  sroinfr  to  drive  them  to  Pennsylvania.  I 
want  them  sharp,  long  corks  ;  I  don't  want  to  sharpen 
them  again  this  winter." 

"All  right." 

These  horses  have  flat  feet  all  around.  In  six 
months  that  man  came  to  the  shop. 

"  Doan,  I  want  these  shoes  clinched,  and  some  nails 
put  in.     I  guess  the  nail  iron  wasn't  very  good." 

The  shoes  were  nearly  buried  inside  of  shell. 

"Mr.  Knap,  we  cannot  always  get  good  nail  iron. 
It  varies  so  that  we  cannot  tell  until  we  try  it.  How- 
ever, I  will  fix  them  up." 

They  came  again  to  get  shod,  and  settle  up.  It  was 
just  nine  months.  The  same  shoes  were  on.  The 
hoof  was  spread  out  over  the  shoe  with  the  weight  of 
the  horse.  It  did  not  kill  them.  See  that  lever  at 
toe.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  horses  of  that  kind  set- 
tled down  in  front  between  top  of  coronet  and  point  at 
toe,  the  weight  being  in  center  of  foot ;  the  frog  has  no 
i-est,  and  is  raised  by  corks  from  the  ground.  The  foot 
gets  soft  sometimes.  Heel-nails  always  break  first 
from  lever  purchase.  Tiie  horse  always,  when  draw- 
ing raises  on  toe.  When  climbing  heavy  hills,  the 
sole  settles  down  until  it  is  below  flat    Then  it  is  verv 


THE   horse's   rescue.  61 

weak.  The  coffin-joint  is  badly  affected.  The  high  toe- 
cork,  drawing  in  this  fix,  weight  in  center,  completelv 
dislocates  the  coffin-joint,  and  in  this  case  the  horse's 
foot  is  almost  useless.  He  rocks  back  on  his  heel ;  the 
toe  turns  up  and  has  a  rocking  motion  at  every  step. 
And  yet  he  is  expected  to  draw  heavy  loads.  That 
lever  works  badlv  on  all  kinds  of  feet.  If  it  has  not 
broken  down,  it  hurts  at  coronet  where  the  ring-bone 
comes  and  strains  back  tendons. 

This  lever  works  both  ways  to  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree, and  I  will  show  what  power  there  is  in  it  con- 
nected with  contraction. 

For  fear  the  readers  may  think  I  have  butchered 
and  mutilated  these  poor  already  tortured  horses,  I 
will  say  right  here  I  never  did ;  I  have  always  known 
it  to  be  wrong,  and  I  never  believed  horses  were  stiff- 
ened .by  anything  they  eat  or  drank ;  and  I  know  they 
are  not  now.  I  lived  at  Talcot's  Corners  when  I  was 
at  work  on  the  Kentucky  hunter  mare,  which  I  have 
not  got  through  with  yet. 

I  will  go  back  to  the  time  I  had  worked  at  shoeing 
the  horse  nine  years  in  the  village  of  Northville, 
Cayuga  Co.,  N.  Y.  Chauncey  Hinman  bought  a  pair 
of  dapple-cream  mares,  very  nice,  black  legs,  mane, 
and  tails.  This  place  is  two  miles  from  Talcoi's  Cor- 
ners. At  that  time  I  had  a  good  reputation  as  a  shoer, 
and  did  a  large  business  in  that  line.  I  had  taken  my 
old  shop  down  to  build  larger,  and  things  were  all  out 
doors.  These  creams  I  shod  the  first  time.  They 
had  flat  feet,  thin  shell.  I  had  shod  them,  as  near  as  I 
can  recollect  about  two  years.  Their  owner  was  my 
regular   customer;     his   horses   needed    shoeing;    he 


61  THE  horse's    rescue. 

waited  for  me^to  get  my  shop  up.  He  bad  business 
about  one  hundred  miles,  and  he  wanted  to  drive  it. 
Having  no  fire,  I  could  not  shoe  them.  He  had 
waited  a  long  time.  His  horse's  feet  had  grown  very 
long.  They  must  be  shod.  He  took  them  to  another 
shop  and  had  them  shod,  and  went  his  journey  and 
back.  I  sent  my  apprentice  to  tell  him  I  wanted  him 
to  draw  some  stone  for  me.  He  came  and  saw  me. 
He  said: 

''I  have  foundered  my  horses." 

''Perhaps  that  is  not  so ;  bring  them  over  so  I  can 
see  them." 

He  said  they  were  so  stiff  he  could  not  get  them  to 
the  shop  in  a  half  day. 

"You  must,"  said  I;  "I  can't  go  now." 

It  was  three  miles.  He  came.  I  soon  saw  where 
the  cause  was.  I  told  him  I  would  cure  them  both 
for  four  shillings. 

"  That  is  just  what  two  other  blacksmiths  told  me.  I 
had  those  shoes  set  twice  wdjile  I  was  gone,  and  it  did 
no  good.  I  have  foundered  them.  I  had  been  told 
that  when  on  the  road,  if  you  water  while  the  horse  is 
warm,  and  then  drive  on  and  keep  him  moving,  there 
is  no  danger;  but  I  stiffened  my  horses  in  this  way." 

They  were  so  stiff  they  could  hardly  move.  After 
they  had  stood  awhile  I  pointed  out  where  the  cause 
was;  and  spent  about  an  hour  explaining.  Then  we 
went  to  the  shop.  These  horses  had  light  limbs  and 
as  good  feet  as  I  want  on  a  horse,  and  not  much 
changed  if  they  had  been  dressed  and  trimmed  as 
they  should  have  been.  There  was  three  inches  of 
useless  hoof  in  length  on  the  toe.     I  cut  it  off,  and 


THE     HORSE'S    RESCUE.  Q'6 

talked  all  the  time,  teaching.  The  shoe  was  a  coarse 
botch  of  a  thing  ;  not  concave  ;  creased  in  the  middle; 
heavy  nails ;  long,  pointed  toe,  with  high  toe-corks  and 
high  heel-corks.  In  fact,  one  of  the  biggest  botches  I 
ever  saw.  When  I  got  these  creams  dressed  np  thej 
had  colts'  feet,  and  their  bodies  came  back  on  their 
base;  weight  in  the  center.  They  were  sore  in  their 
cords.  The  cause  was  removed.  I  explained  it  all  to 
the  owner  three  or  four  times  over,  and  told  him  that 
in  a  week  thej  would  be  all  right;  if  they  were  not  I 
would  take  them  and  pay  him  what  they  cost  him. 
A  week  afterward  I  was  sitting  on  the  verandah  at 
my  house,  and  I  saw  the  creams  coming  down  the 
road ;  heads  up,  good  knee-action,  feeling  fine.  He 
stopped. 

"Doan,  my  horses  are  as  sound  as  ever  they  were." 
"  Yes,  that's  all  right."     "Say,  now,  look  here  ;  tell 
me  what  you  did  to  those  horses.     No  man  shall  shoe 
these  horses  but  you." 

"Go  where  you  please  to  get  your  shoeing  done." 
My  God!  what  good  did  all  of  that   talk  do?     I 
told  him  again,  "Look  out  for  that  lever  purchase." 

My  brother  Oliver  and  myself  had  those  horses  and 
thousands  of  others  of  that  kind  to  cure  of  "chest 
founder '' — some  over  and  over  again.  Talk  and  work 
and  teach,  and  no  one  w^ould  learn !  Horses  came 
blistered  and  with  setons  in  shoulders.  The  fact  is,  the 
owners  looked  at  us  and  not  at  the  horse.  After 
you  read  this  book,  go  and  look  at  the  horse. 

"Well,  we  have  had  a  hard  day  putting  these  poor 
horses  on  their  base  and  balance.     In  all  stages  and 


04  THE     HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

degrees  of  changes  from  natural.  My  head  rings  from 
being  bent  over  so  much. 

Supper  is  over.  Let  us  go  and  see  the  Kentucky- 
hunter. 

"  Kit,  this  is  the  night  you  were  to  show  yourself 
to  those  boys  that  examined  you.'' 

The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  that  this  mare  had 
not  been  seen  by  anyone  but  myself. 

"There,  Bill  Jones,  straddle  this  mare"  (Bill  Jones 
Yv^as  a  boy).     "  Let  her  sail." 

She  did  sail  better  than  any  horse  they  had.  She 
was  a  good  one.  Some  of  the  men  were  there  who 
seen  her  in  a  stiffened  condition.  Do  you  think  that 
attracted  their  attention  ?  It  did  not,  and  that 
is  the  reason  I  am  writing  this  work.  Next  day 
I  had  business  at  Kelloggsville  to  pay  a  stallion  license. 
(I  have  kept  stallions.)  It  was  nineteen  miles,  hubby 
and  rough.  I  was  on  the  Moravia  flats  eaily 
in  the  morning.  Gird  Mead  was  leading  his  horses 
across  the  road  to  water.  I  saw  him.  I  knew  him, 
and  knew  where  he  lived,  when  I  traded  with 
his  hired  man,  Sam.  He  did  not  know  me;  never 
had  seen  me,  as  I  knew.  It  is  a  good  time  to  sur- 
prise hmi.  He  thought  he  had  played  sharp  on 
me.  The  flats  were  worn  quite  smooth,  and  that  was 
all  the  smooth  road  I  found  on  that  trip  I  let  her 
sail.  I  saw  him  looking  and  pulled  up  and  asked, 
"  How  far  is  it  to  Kelloggsville  ?" 

"  About  six  miles." 

I  saw  him  looking  at  the  mare's  fore  legs. 

'*'Do  vou  know  her?"  said  I. 

**\VelL  I  had  a  marc  that  would  match   her  very 


THE   horse's  rescue.  65 

well,  but  she  was  stiff.     I  let  her  go  a  few  days  ago." 

"This  is  the  same  mare.  I  traded  with  Sam 
Grover." 

"  Well,  I  would  like  to  know  what  you  have  done 
to  her." 

I  jumped  out,  explained  the  whole  thing  to  him,  as 
I  always  do,  and  sailed  on.  Remember  that  lever. 
The  mare  I  was  driving  was  worth  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars,  and  the  one  he  got,  seventy-five  dollars. 
1  got  twenty  dollars  to  boot.  How  does  that  loss  fig- 
ure ?  Ninety-five  dollars  on  account  of  toe  leverage 
on  horses.  Do  not  forget  that  that  principle  works 
bad  on  all  horses,  and  worse  on  hind  feet.  I  think 
this  mare  would  look  better  with  the  neck  strap  looped 
over  the  turret  to  hold  the  collar  up.  I  do  not  like 
that  thing.  She  holds  her  head  so  high  it  feels  dis- 
agreeable. Here  we  are  at  the  harness-shop.  "  Whoa." 
The  saddler  is  getting  the  length. 

"This  looks  something  like  the  mare  Doc  Mead 
had." 

"  This  is  the  same  mare." 

"  That  can't  be.  I  saw  her  a  few  days  ago ;  she 
was  awful  stiff." 

"  It  is  the  same  mare." 

"How  did  you  cure  her?" 

1  told  him  all  about  it. 

"I  have  got  a  horse  I  just  traded  for,"  says  he. 
"  Perhaps  he  is  the  same.  He  is  stiff.  Will  you  go 
and  look  at  him?" 

"  Yes,  this  is  a  different  case  ;  cause  not  so  easily  re- 
moved ;  cup  foot ;    take  his  shoes  off ,  cut  his   feet 


66  THE  horse's  rescue. 

down  nearly  half;  let  him  go  wixhout  shoes;  that  will 
help  him  some." 

That  poor  horse  could  hardly  stand ;  contracted 
feet,  leverage.  I  cannot  do  all  the  hard  work  and 
furnish  brains,  too.  There  are  so  many  making 
more  all  of  the  time.  I  teach,  talk  early  and  late, 
night  and  day.''  Sail  home ;  get  home  long  before 
night  Thirty-eight  miles' drive  over  hubs;  stinging 
cold ;  take  good  care  of  Kit.  While  doing  it  the 
three  or  four  gather  around. 

"  Doan,  where  have  you  been  all  day  ?" 

"To  Kelloggsville." 

"  We  have  waited  all  day  for  you." 

Horses  all  lame  or  interfering;  some  one  thing, 
some  another. 

"Can  you  do  it?" 

"  Yes,  as  soon  as  I  get  something  to  eat.  I've  had 
no  dinner." 

Get  in  shop;  sleeves  rolled  up;  at  it  again.  Get 
them  all  pleased  as  well  as  I  can.  It  is  nine  o'clock, 
perhaps  later.  Kit  must  be  cleaned  o:ff,  and  made 
comfortable  before  I  sleep.  I  will  have  to  wait  five 
weeks  before  I  can  finish  her ;  but  we  will  have  lots 
of  good  sails  during  that  time  in  the  night.  She  must 
have  exercise  or  I  cannot  cure  her.  This  is  the  way 
I  cure  all  cases  of  this  kind. 

Header,  do  you  think  I  sat  down  and  waited  for 
that  time  to  come  ?  If  you  do  that  would  not  make 
it  so.  I  had  lots  of  horses  I  was  working  on.  They 
were  not  in  my  care,  only  as  they  came  to  the  shop  to 
be  shod.  Work  and  teach ;  give  directions  none  fol- 
fowed.     Day  after  day  this  work  all  had  to  be  done 


THE    HOESE's    ItESCUE.  67 

over  and  over  again  and  no  good  result,  some  going 
on  from  bad  to  worse.  Do  you  know  what  I  thought 
sometimes?  Well,  I  will  teilj'ou.  I  thought  the  cre- 
ator had  not  got  man  finished  jet.  I  have  not  changed 
my  mind  yet  on  that.  He  needs  some  more  work 
done  on  him.  He  is  not  polished  yet,  and  that  is  one 
reason  for  my.  writing  this  work.  Men.have  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  animal,  the  horse.  I  have  two  brothers, 
Oliver  Doan  and  J.  J.  Doan.  They  have  been  ground 
through  this  mill  for  years.  Sometimes  we  were  all 
in  one  shop  together,  all  talking  about  principles  to 
shoe  the  horse  on  to  keep  him  from  getting  lame,  and 
how  to  cure.  Sometimes  we  would  agree,  and  at  other 
times  we  would  not,  and  it  would  get  middling  hot; 
but  we  still  kept  up  the  battle  for  the  horse.  We 
were  working  for  the  horse,  not  for  the  man.  Some- 
times all  scattered  .singly  *  We  all  carried  on  shops  in 
many  places.  1  worl^ed  nine  years  in  many  different 
shops.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three  I  opened  a  shop 
at  the  little  village  of  Northville,  in  the  town  of 
Genoa,  Ca3^uga  count}-,  IST.  Y.  I  was  a  jobber  and 
carriage  ironer,  and  carried  on  that  business,  connected 
with  horse-shoeing.  Oliver  commenced  to  work  at 
Talcot's  Corners  with  Halsey  W.  Taylor  six  years 
after  I  did.  I  commenced  with  Taylor  to  leara  my 
trade.  For  some  reason,  I  know  not  what,  Oliver  left 
and  came  where  I  was  at  work  at  Little  Hollow  for 
Zenos  B.  Richmond,  who  carried  oh  the  carriage  busi- 
ness, jobbing,  and  shoeing  the  horse.  Richmond  hired 
him  by  the  year.  We  worked  a  year  and  a  half  there 
together — his  wages  thirty  dollars  a  year  and  board, 
he  to  clothe  himself.     He  went  with  me  to  Northville. 


08  .  XHE    HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

We  wrestled  With  the  horse  there  several  years.  Then 
Joseph;  another  brother,  came.  He  is  next  younger. 
He  tried  it  for  a  while  and  quit.  Oliver  worked  for 
me  in  all  about  eleven  years.  In  a  short  time 
Joseph  came  and  wanted  to  try  it  again.  Then  we 
were  all  in  my  shop  together.  "We  had  lots  of  hard 
battles  balancing  these  poor  horses,  all  studying  on 
some  principle  to  shoe  on  to  benefit  the  horse.  Oli- 
ver had  carried  on  business  in  the  states  of  New  Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania,  and  ISTew  York.  He  soon  started 
business  for  himself  again.  Then  Joseph  went  with  him. 
Thus  I  lost  the  most  trusty  man  I  ever  had  to  work  on 
the  horse  or  any  other  kind  of  work.  I  had  connected 
wagon-work  and  painting  with  my  business.  That 
they  learned  and  carried  on,  connected  with  their  busi- 
ness. Joseph  changed  around  ;  sometimes  he  was  with 
me  and  again  Oliver.  Then  he  went  to  work  in  other 
shops  ;  Oliver  the  same  the  fore  part'of  his  life.  Joseph 
carried  on  business  in  many  places,  and  was  shoer 
in  the  Rebellion  for  a  brigade.  I  carried  on  business  in 
ten  different  places.  In  this  horse  sail  I  came  around 
in  the  same  place.  I  always  bought.  Twice  I  bought 
the  same  property,  and  battled  for  the  horse.  I  write 
this  to  show  you  how  queerly  this  sail  worked.  We 
were  learning  the  horse-shoeing  trade,  and  we  did 
learn  it.  We  are  now  all  together  nearly  in  the  same 
place.  Each  dropped  all  other  mechanical  work  and 
fell  in  line,  battling  for  the  horse.  We  have  made 
shoeing  a  specialty  for  many  years,  working  on 
the  horse,  and  intend  to  keep  up  this  fight.  As  long 
as  we  three  live  single  or  together,  we  are  all  united. 


THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE.  69 

It  is  perfected,  as   near   as   it   can   be,  and   iron   the 
horse's  feet. 

Go  with  me  to  Auburn  city.  There  you  will  see  a 
man  standi^ng  by  a  fine  dapple-gray  stallion.  His  eyes 
are  sunken  ;  he  looks  care-worn,  and  his  cbeeks  are 
hollowed,  battling,  teaching  almost  night  and.  day ;  J.  J. 
Donn  doing  the  same.  This  man's  name  is  Oliver 
Doan.  1  visit  them  often  while  I  am  writing  this 
work  to  see  how  the  battle  is  going.  They  are  curing 
horses  without  medicine.  Eeader,  do  not  think  this 
is  the  beginning;  these  boys  have  been  master  of  the 
horse's  feet  about  eight  years;  and  Oliver,  as  I  said, 
has  been  working  almost  night  and  day  trying  to  in- 
troduce and  teach  this  great  discovery.  He  says  lie 
will  never  give  it  up.  I  looked  him  over  the  other 
day.  I  told  him  I  thought  he  must  give  out  soon  un- 
less he  had  rest,  he  was  so  over-taxed  and  broken  of 
his  rest.  If  we  lose  this  soldier  it  will  weaken  our 
army  very  much.  My  own  back  is  about  given  out, 
and  Joe's  is  the  same.  I  left  them  still  in  the  field  to 
write  this  book. 

Let  us  go  back  to  Talcot's  Corners,  where  the  Ken- 
tuckv  hunter  mare  is,  and  work  five  weeks  on  horses 
day  after  day  and  nights.  I  have  four  or  five  cup  feet 
liorses.  I  am  trying  to  spread  their  feet,  shoeing  on 
the  wrong  principle.  I  tried  a  shoe  made  in  this  way, 
bevel  out  or  incline  plane,  so  that  the  foot  would  slide 
out  with  the  weight  of  the  horse.  Tworked  at  that  for 
years,  but  I  could  not  gain  anything.  I  soaked  the 
feet  and  drove  with  the  same  result.  Sometimes  the 
feet  grew  narrower  instead  of  expanding.  I  made  up 
my  mind  it  was  wrong,  and  for  this  reason :  the  foot 


70  THE  '  horse's  kefcue. 

constantlj  sliding  out  and  going  back  at  every  step 
the  horse  took  kept  the  structure  of  the  foot  in 
motion,  and  it  was  badly  changed  from  natural.  It 
did  not  remove  the  cause ;  on  the  contrary,  it  irritated 
it — made  bad  worse.  The  foot  was  always  dry  and 
hard.  I  dropped  that  and  went  back  to  flat  rest  on 
heel.  That  worked  better.  I  rasped  the  foot  in  front 
to  weaken,  so  the  heels  would  spread,  and  put  a  few 
nails  in  the  toe  so  as  not  to  hold  the  heels.  Still  I 
could  gain  but  little,  and  often  lost  more  than  I  gained. 
Wet  and  dry  weather  worked  against  me,  but  that 
power,  the  lever,  was  the  worst.  For  years  and  years 
I  worked  to  try  to  save  horses  from  getting  stiff,  and 
still  they  came  pouring  in  for  relief.  If  they  had  never 
seen  a  blacksmith  or  shoer,  they  would  have  been  all 
right,  or  nearly  so  ;  but  I  did  not  know  at  that  time 
they  were  thrown  in  such  a  bad  condition,  as  I  after 
many  years  found  out  by  experimenting. 

It  is  five  weeks  since  I  shod  Kit;  let  us  finish  her 
off.  I  always  shoe  my  horses  all  around  at  one  time, 
unless  a  shoe  should  get  torn  off  by  accident  or  other- 
wise. This  mare's  foot  has  grown  five  weeks;  the 
lever  on  the  toe  has  grown  some.  The  heels  were 
too  low  when  we  shod  her.  Pare  the  toe  now  from 
heel ;  make  new  shoes  this  time,  the  same  as  the  first, 
only  with  thinner  heels.  The  heel  is  higher  on  tlie 
foot.  Look  up  and  down  the  horse's  leg  and  calculate 
how  the  work  should  be  done  to  keep  the  strain  off  the 
cords;  place  the  foot  back  as  far  as  she  can,  and  heel 
sit  flat  down  on  the  floor,  and  not  hurt  her.  If  you 
get  the  heel  too  high  she  cannot  move  well,  and  it  will 
tip  her  on  knee  and  ankle.     This  principle  works  the 


THE    HOKSE'S    KESCUE,  71 

snrae  on  all  "horses.  This  mare  was  contracted  but 
very  little.  Kow  I  am  going  to  test  this  and  see  how 
she  will  stand  a  big  drive  in  the  month  of  March. 

I  drove  here  on  rough  roads,  up  and  down  hills, 
two  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  at  from  fifty  to  sixty 
miles  a  day,  and  no  founder,  no  soreness  of  cords.  I 
bad  dressed  up  her  feet  for  the  journey.  I  sold  her 
that  spring  to  a  Mr.  Smith.  I  shod  her  while  he 
owned  her,  which  was  one  year.  He  sold  her  to  Mr 
Niles,  who  also  owned  her  for  a  year,  I  continued  to 
shoe  her.  She  hauled  w^ood  all  winter  over  hubs, 
when  Niles  sold  her  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  dolLars, 
In  a  short  time  she  got  in  another  blacksmith  shop, 
and  became  "  foundered  "  in  the  chest.  Then  there 
was  a  row.     Niles  came  to  me  in  a  rage. 

"  Doan,  what  is  there  about  that  black  mare  you 
sold  to  Smith  ?  They  say  you  say  she  has  been 
foundered.  The  man  I  sold  her  to  wants  me  to  take 
her  back." 

"  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  kind.  She  was  the 
stifiest  horse  I  ever  saw  when  1  got  her.  I  removed 
the  cause  in  four  days,  and  can  do  it  again.' 

He  had  to  take  her  back.  I  never  saw  her  after 
"Niles  sold  her.  I  had  all  the  horses  I  could  take  care 
of.  I  could  have  bought  her  cheap  and  sold  in  a  few 
days,  and  made  some  more  money  on  toe-leveroge. 
I  could  find  this  kind  of  hoi*sesany  day,  and  all  over; 
they  were  being  made  everywhere  by  the  wholesale. 
This  work  is  intended  to  be  an  eye-opener.  It  is  "The 
Horse's  Rescue,"  and  if  this  does  not  do  it,  I  shall  go 
at  it  myself  again  ;  it  is  good  business  relieving  the 
suffering  horse. 


72  THE  horse's  eescue. 

I  will  bid  Kit  good-bye.  I  told  her  owner  that  if  I 
saw  or  heard  of  those  mutilators,  blisterers,  rowel- 
ers,  and  butchers  at  her  again,  I  would  *'go  for 
them." 

Reader,  do  not  think  all  of  these  sufferers  are  to  be 
cured  like  this  mare;  if  you  do,  you  will  make  a  mis- 
take. No  matter  what  '^  the}^  ^^J?"  giy^  your  atten- 
tion and  learn.  After  the  cause  is  removed  on  them 
by  working  on  the  feet,  they  must  have  work  and  ex- 
ercise or  they  cannot  be  changed  back  to  natural,  no 
matter  how  long  or  sliort  standing.  All  must  be 
changed  back  and  come  in  harmony  of  action,  as  their 
creator  made  them,  or  no  cure  wuU  be  effected.  They 
must  be  balanced  on  all  four  feet,  their  weight  equal- 
ized on  each  foot  and  in  center  of  each  foot.  The 
structure  of  every  foot  must  be  in  its  proper  place  and 
balanced  in  the  center.  Standing  with  his  feet  all  in  a 
huddle  under  his  belly,  with  his  head  down,  and 
asleep,  you  could  take  a  natural  horse  by  the  tail  and 
rock  him  as  you  cc^uld  a  chair  with  rockers  on  it  and  not 
move  his  feet  or  strain  him  or  hurt  him  in  any  way  on 
cords  or  tendons.  He  can  rear  up  and  stand  on  his 
hind  legs  straight ;  kick  up  straight  and  not  hurt  him. 
I  have  watched  the  colt  stand  for  hours  balanced 
in  this  way  asleep.  If  he  had  not  been  balanced  in 
center,  he  cou]d  not  stand  in  that  position  asleep. 
The  stiff  horse  can  stand  and  sleep  if  his  hind  legs  are 
not  shoved  too  far  forward  under  his  belly  by  lever  and 
contraction,  and  by  being  run  over,  something  as  a 
sawhorse  stands  ;  but  he  has  no  action,  and  he  is 
obliged  to  stand  in  this  way,  or  not  stand  at  alh     li 


THE    horse's   rescue.  73 

he  lies  down,  he  often  wants  help  to  get  up,  and  can- 
not stand  then. 

I  had  a  horse  I  called  Bill.  I  have  seen  him  play 
for  hours  in  the  pasture  in  this  way;  he  would  rear 
up,  walk  on  his  hind  feet,  then  come  down  on  his  for- 
ward feet,  and  kick  up  almost  straight.  I  watched 
him.  '  I  noticed  his  feet  all  struck  in  one  place  in  the 
center.  That  horse  could  get  his  head  down  to  eat 
grass  and  drink  water  without  sprawling  out  his  legs 
or  falling  over  on  his  head  and  breaking  his  neck, 
which  I  will  better  explain  hereafter.  Curious,  with 
all  of  the  books  we  have  had  ;  they  never  got  away 
from  that  poor  sore  foot,  and  these  wonderful  shoes  all 
polished  up.  It  seems  to  me  they  worked  a  very 
small  field  on  the  horse,  and  it  would  have  been  better 
if  ther  had  not  worked  that.  After  the  horse  eot 
so  he  could  not  get  his  head  down  nor  up,  they  intro- 
duced feeding  hay  on  the  ground.  It  is  curious  they 
always  got  it  wrong,  as  I  will  show  the}'  have.  Then, 
worse  than  all,  they  want  to  keep  it  so  by  trying  to 
enact  laws  so  that  no  blacksmith  shall  operate  on  a 
horse's  foot  unless  he  has  a  diploma  from  some  veter- 
inary college  or  university,  or  an  order  from  us. 
"Our  heads  contain  all  of  the  brains  and  knowledge 
and  wisdom,  and  we  will  furnish  it  for  you.  It  is  in- 
exhaustible !"  My,  my !  do  you  not  know  a  man  is 
known  by  his  works?  Let  us  take  a  sail,  and  peep 
around  and  see  what  we  can  find.    - 

I  must  pass  over  many  years  of  hard  knocks,  work- 
ing on  and  battling  for  the  horse.  It  will  not  be  inter- 
esting, and  I  do  not  want  to  write  it  I  could  not. 
Lot  us  go  in   the  streetcar  shop   in   Elmira.     Here 


74  THE  horse's  refcue. 

stands  a  row  of  horses,  and  it  is  all  they  can  do  to 
stain^.  What  is  tlie  matter  witli  thern?  Thev  are  all 
uS.  of  their  base,  caused  by  lever  power  in  all  stages 
and  deixi'ees  of  chano-e.  and  all  in  the  wrcnEr  way. 
"  What  are  these  holes  cut  in  here  for  where  the  hind 
feet  stand?  "  "To  let  the  toes  draw  in  to  relieve  the 
cords."  Let  us  look  around.  Here  stand  some  in  the 
water — disabled — soaking  their  feet,  which  are  con- 
contracted,  and  with  two  sets  of  feet,  and  shoes  on; 
head  down,  suffering;  blisters,  setons,  nnd  all  man- 
ner of  tortuiing  going  on.  On  one  side  is  the  shoeing 
shop;  on  the  other  is  a  professv-^r's  or  veterinarian's 
sign.  Professor  of  what?  Torturino^  the  alread  v  suf- 
ferinir  horse.  And  yet  he  ^rets  a  orood  salarv.  Look 
at  tlie  condition  of  the  horses,  and  see  if  he  earns  it. 
We  have  professional  Liiieves,  gamblers,  and  linrs,  but 
their  occupation  is  more  useful  than  mutilating  these 
poor  helpless  creatures.  This  work  is  ''TliE  Horse's 
Rescue."  Gerard  Doan  is  the  author  of  it,  and  he 
does  not  "scare  worth  a  cent."  There  are  two 
brothers  connected  with  this  work — chips  off  of  the 
old  block.  Let  us  go  to  Newburg,  in  Orange  Co.,  and 
Bee  what  we  can  find  there.  We  see  these  horses 
climbing  up  and  down  stairs,  or  inclined  planes,  two 
stories  high,  at  nearly  quarter  pitch,  in  this  deformed 
condition,  all  off  base  or  equilibrium  or  balance.  This 
is  not  seen,  I  well  know.  When  these  horses  are 
moving  on  the  road  they  are  behind  themselves.  I 
can  explain  it  in  no  other  way  better  than  this.  It 
put  me  in  mind  of  the  puppy  in  pursuit  of  his  shadow. 
The  object  always  remains  at  the  same  distance.     The 


THE   horse's  rescue.  75 

animal  is  trying  to  get  on  his  base  or  foundation.     His 
weipht  is  unequal!}^  adjusted. 

Wlien  looking  around,  talking  horse,  a  man  says : 
"I  have  a  fine-looking  horse.  He  can  hardly  walk. 
Will  you  go  and  see  him  ?"  *'  Yes."  They  say  he  is 
''foundered;"  flat  feet  all  around  ;  shoes  on;  weight 
in  center;  corks  on  shoe;  frog  on  ground;  went  down 
through  the  cup;  long  toes;  rounding  on  bottom; 
broken  in  front ;  coffin-joint  injured  or  dislocated.  I 
told  the  man  to  pull  off  the  horse's  shoes,  cut  off  that 
lever,  and  put  the  weight  on  the  frog.  He  might  get 
well.  It  would  help  help  him  if  he  did  not  recover. 
He  thought  that  would  not  do.  Here  is  another  case — 
cup  foot.  This  hoi'se  is  within  a  stone's  throw  of  a 
veterinarian's  office  in  Elmira.  The  owner  says:  "If 
3^ou  will  cure  him  I  will  give  you  ten  dollars."  Let  us 
examine  him.  One  foot  is  not  half  as  long  as  its  male, 
and  that  is  contracted  badly.  He  is  onl}^  eight  years 
old.  On  one  he  has  what  is  called  a  "  heart  shoe," 
frog-bearing;  not  nearly  as  long  as  it  might  have  been. 
Long  pointed  toe,  and  ironed  solid.  He  was  in  great 
pain. 

They  were  trying  to  shoe  this  horse  in  that  way. 
A  frog-bearing  shoe  should  never  be  put  on  a  cup  foot 
in  any  case.  It  holds  the  sole  up  and  makes  bad 
worse  for  this  reason :  the  foot  cannot  expand  unless 
the  sole  can  come  down.  And  that  is  not  all ;  if 
it  is  nailed  it  cannot  run  down  unless  the  shoe  gets 
loose,  and  then  the  shoer  takes  a  scurfing.  This  prin- 
ciple is  the  same  on  all  cup  feet.  I  tried  to  induce  him 
to  pull  all  of  the  shoes  off  and  dress  his  feet  down  at 
the  toe.     Cut  off   that   lever   I  could  not.     I  walked 


76  THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

away.    Before  I  got  through  this  work  I  will  tip  over 
more  than  you  are  aware  of  with  that  lever. 

Let  us  Sit  down  on  the  hotel  verandah  and  have  a 
rest,  and  see  the  horses  pass  and  study  them.  This  is 
a  great  thoroughfare  to  Elmira,  a  continuous  stream 
of  horses  passing  and  repassing,  nearly  all  lame.  Some 
are  stiff  in  one  way  or  another.  It  occurred  to  me  this 
is  the  place  for  me.  They  are  in  a  worse  condition 
liere  than  any  place  I  ever  have  been  in.  I  lived  in 
Tioga  county,  Pennsylvania.  At  that  time  I  owned  a 
farm  and  was  trying  to  work  it.  I  always  had  a  shop, 
and  was  always  talking  horse  and  teaching  all  I  could. 
It  soon  brought  a  lot  of  cripples  for  relief,  as  it  always 
had.  There  was  no  place  I  could  do  it  all.  I  might 
as  well  sell  my  farm  and  give  up  trying  to  work  at 
any  kind  of  business.  I  did  sell  it,  and  all  of  my 
property  except  my  horses  and  driving  rigs.  These  I 
must  keep.  They  are  all  nearly  new  and  good.  I 
shall  need  them  to  exercise  horses  if  I  work  on  them. 
I  had  as  fine  a  pair  as  any  I  saw  in  Ilorseheads.  They 
were  wanted  to  put  on  the  street  cars.  I  said  I  would 
rather  see  them  dead  than  let  them  go  there.  And 
thev  were  soon  dead.  Before  I  got  all  of  my  goods 
moved  my  Bill,  that  was  balanced  in  center,  had  gone. 
He  was  the  first  to  go.  I  was  driving  the  pair  to- 
gether. The  roads  were  muddy.  A  board  was  buried 
in  the  mud.  He  stepped  on  the  end  ;  it  flew  up,  ran 
into  him,  and  killed  him.  You  can  see  me  in  a  barm 
John  Saterly,  born  in  Horseheads,  examining  a  horse. 
This  horse  is  five  years  old,  the  very  picture  of  my 
Bill.  His  forward  feet  are  soaking.  I  asked,  "How 
came  the  frogs  all  out  of  these  feet,  Mr,  Saterly?" 


THE  horse's  rescue.  77 

"  I  think  he  must  have  cut  them  out  on  stone." 

That  is  not  it;  his  feet  are  badly  contracted  ;  the 
circulation  is  all  cut  off  from  the  frog  by  the  pressure. 
The  sole  each  side  of  the  frog.  You  must  get  him 
out  of  that." 

"Will  you  do  it  forme?" 

"  I  will" 

"All  right ;  we  will  have  a  frog  in  those  feet  in  less 
than  a  year.  This  horse  had  not  been  used  in  nearly 
one  3^ear.  He  could  not  travel.  He  was  a  present  to 
John  from  a  friend.  John  suffered  with  the  horse.  I 
relieved  them  both.  How?  I  will  tell  you.  I 
spread  his  feet,  and  told  John  to  drive  him  every  day. 
In  one  year  he  had  the  colt's  foot  on  him,  and  John  was 
offered  five  hundred  dollars  for  him.  He  would  not 
sell  him.  How  much  did  I  get  for  him  ?  How  much 
did  I  get"  for  that  job  ?  The  price  of  shoeing  the  horse 
and  John's  friendship,  and  that  is  more  than  I  got  from 
thousands  for  the  same  job.  I  am  going  to  send  John 
one  of  these  books  if  I  live. 

Where  next?  On  the  floor  in  David  Townsend's 
shop,  driving  on  shoes  for  two  fighters;  work  four 
days  at  one  dollar  per  day  ;  have  a  row.  I  refuse  to 
drive  on  shoes  unless  they  are  more  properly  fitted ; 
am  called  a  damned  botch.  I  told  them  I  never  had 
slaughtered  horses  when  I  knew  it,  and  I  sliould  not 
begin  now.  I  am  ordered  out  of  the  shop.  I  picked 
up  my  tools  and  told  them  I  would  have  a  shop  of  my 
own  in  this  place  soon.  "You  can't  shoe  ail  of  the 
horses  if  you  do,''  is  the  reply. 

Where  next  ?  In  a  shop  on  the  bank  of  the  canal ; 
wrestled  with  the  horse  earlvand  late.    There  are  nine 


78  THE  horse's  rescue. 

shops  in  this  place.  Let  us  go  and  look  Mr.  Bennett's 
stable  of  horses  over,  and  see  how  we  find  them.  In 
a  suffering  condition  ;  in  all  stages  of  suffering.  I 
talked  with  Mr.  Bennett.  Explain,  teach,  all  of  the 
time.  He  tells  me  to  take  them  and  fix  them  up. 
What  ails  this  horse  in  here?  Sh  !  He  is  gone  up; 
he  can  hardlv  stand.  He  is  strained,  I  think,  across 
the  loin  ;  his  water-works  aie  out  of  order  all  of  the 
time.  "That  horse  and  his  mate,''  says  Mr.  Bennett, 
"cost  me  eight  hundred  dollars  not  long  ago."  His 
mate  had  a  flattish  foot.  I  shod  him.  He  was  in  the 
team  at  time  we  were  talking.  "  What  is  so  much 
straw  in  here  for?"  I  asked. 

"He  can't  stand  on  the  ground."  Let  us  get  him 
out  of  tliis  straw  so  we  can  see  his  feet.  Oh,  horror! 
this  poor  liorse  was  nearly  ready  to  fall  over  back- 
wai-d,  as  his  eyes  and  general  appearance  showed  the 
intense  suffering  he  was  obliged  to  endure,  too  plainly 
for  anv  man  that  had  eves  not  to  see.  "  Mr.  Ben- 
nett,"  said  I,  "do  you  know  what  is  the  matter  with 
that  horse?" 

"No." 

"Well.  I  do.  I  can  relieve  him  in  a  very  short 
time,  and  will  if  you  will  let  me.  It's  a  hard  job  for 
him  and  me,  too,  but  it  must  be  done.'' 

This  horse  had  not  been  able  to  work  in  a  long  time, 
and  had  been  crammed  with  all  kinds  of  trash  called 
"medicine."  He  had  shoes  on  and  w^as  higher  from 
the  top  of  his  hoof  down  to  the  point  at  his  toe  than 
any  other  hoi-se  I  ever  saw  His  feet  were  quite 
straight  up  and  down  ;  his  fore  legs  stood  about  perpen- 
dicular ;  his  breast  was  full,  his  shoulders  nearlv  all 


THE   horse's   rescue.  79 

riorht,  his  hind  feet  weet  were  drawn  forward  under  his 
bcllv  bv  contraction  and  leverage,  and  were  of  but  lit- 
tie  us(3  to  liim.  If  his  fore  legs  bad  been  braced  for- 
ward lie  would  liavc  gone  over  backward.  It,  would 
have  thrown  so  much  weight  on  his  already  overtaxed 
le<'s,  tliev  be'ncr  so  much  off  their  bose.  This  horse 
was  eight  years  old;  weight  about  thirteen  hundred. 
Eeader,  how  would  you  like  to  tackle  that  horse 
alone  as  I  did  ?  I  had  a  good  sweat.  I  have  thought 
hundreds  of  times  in  my  life  that  the  worth  of  a  man's 
work  is  not  known  until  he  had  been  dead  five  hun- 
dred years,  and  not  always  then.  I  out  those  feet 
down  nearly  half,  balancing  the  horse  as  well  ns  I 
could  at  that  time.  His  feet  were  very  sore.  I  put 
on  shoes  suitable  feu*  iiim,  pared  the  sole  so  it  coiiid 
comedcwnby  his  weight  in  the  mantierl  have  ali'cndy 
described  (see  page  88),  packed  his  feet  with  chiy. 
Remember,  no  nails  back  of  the  widest  part  of  the 
foot.  The  next  morning,  after  shoeing  this  horse,  he 
was  harnessed  to  a  onediorse  wagon  loaded  with  a 
small  quantity  of  lumber,  and  driven  at  a  walk  by  my 
orders.  He  bclonf^^ed  to  a  man  that  owned  a  mill  and 
lumber-yard.  The  horse  delivered  lumber.  I  watched 
his  feet.  Do  not  forget  to  clean  in  the  morning  all 
cut  under  his  shoe.  If  you  do  forget  it  you  will  fail. 
This  horse  was  heavj-.  I  balanced  him  with  his 
weisrht  in  the  center  of  foot. 

Cripples  come  pouring  in  in  alPdegrees  of  change 
from  natural,  interferers,  and  all  kinds  but  those  in  a 
natural  condition.  Not  one  of  these  arrived  in  the 
lot.  I  fixed  them  all  up  as  well  as  I  could.  One 
horse  came  that  it  will  be  particularly  well  to  men- 


80  THE    horse's    rescue. 

tion.  He  bad  a  thin-shelled,  flat  foot.  He  was  lame. 
His  foot  was  large,  and  shod  too  large — up  on  corks- 
center  up  from  ground  ;  his  foot  spread  too  mucli,  and 
was  constantly  springing  at  every  step  from  the  weight 
of  the  horse.  It  made  him  lame.  I  put  clips  on  the 
shoe  at  the  quarters  to  prevent  the  springing.  He 
went  off  very  well.  I  told  the  owner  he  must  not 
leave  the  shoes  on  more  than  four  weeks ;  if  lie  did,  it 
would  play  mischief  with  the  coffin-joint;  the  sole 
w^ould  rise  in  center.  What  good  did  that  do?  In 
nearly  six  months  after  I  saw  the  horse — so  stiff  he 
could  hardly  walk,  with  the  same  shoes  on.  They 
had  not  been  set.  I  talked  with  the  owner  about  it. 
He  did  not  like  my  shoeing.  He  liked  that  lever  on 
the  toe,  contraction,  coffin-joint  lameness,  perished 
shoulders,  and  a  deformed  horse,  better.  It  did  not 
injure  my  business  any.  He  had  watered  or  fed  him 
three  or  four  times  a  day.  "They  say"  he  is  found- 
ered, and  that  clears  up  the  business. 

Ten  days  have  passed  since  I  pulled  that  horse  out 
of  the  straw.  Ho  has  worked  drawing  lumber  eyery 
day.  It  was  rainy  during  this  time,  which  was  in  my 
favor.  I  did  not  have  to  pack  his  feet.  They  soaked 
while  at  work.  "Hello,  boy  I  drive  up  here."  (It 
was  a  boy  that  drove  him.)  Let  us  examine  this 
horse's  feet  and  body.  He  is  working  back  on  his 
l)ase  fast.  His  hind  legs  stand  back  at  least  one  foot 
further  than  he  did  when  we  pulled  him  out  of  the 
straw.  Let  us  look  at  the  heels  of  feet  all  around. 
They  are  all  spread  a  quarter  of  an  inch  over  the 
shoe.  Take  him  off  the  wagon  ;  let  us  spread  these 
shoes  out  even  with  foot,  plump;  this  foot  is  flatten- 


THE    HORSES    RESCUE.  81 

ing  and  lowering.  The  sole  is  coming  down,  and  foot 
assuming  its  natural  shape.  The  structure  is  gradu- 
ally coming  into  harmony  of  action.  He  is  improv- 
ing internally  and  externally.  He  needs  no  m.edicine, 
neither  does  he  take  any.  He  is  in  my  care.  ''Drive 
on,  bo}^" 

Readers,  1  was  working  a  large  number  at  the  same 
time.  Some  I  helped,  some  I  made  worse.  Tiicir 
owners  all  knew  more  than  I  did,  or  they  listened  to 
that  old  "they  say,"  and  went  the  rounds  from  one 
shop  to  another,  until  their  horses  were  neai-ly  ruined  ; 
then  back  to  me  again.  I  did  not  have  the  horses  iu 
my  care,  consequently  I  could  not  gain  anything,  con- 
tinually doing  the  same  work  over  again.  It  put  me 
in  mind  of  a  puppy  pursuing  his  tail,  the  object  of 
pursuit  ever  remaining  at  the  same  distance.  I  assure 
you,  reader,  it  is  somewhat  trying  to  a  man's  powers 
of  endurances.  I  have  a  little  bo}^,  Frank.  He  is 
fourteen  years  old  now.  Since  the  age  of  six  years  he 
has  stood  by  these  poor  horses  for  hours,  sponging  and 
working  their  legs  with  warm  warter,  soaking  their 
feet,  caressing,  and  talking  to  them,  while  I  was  shoe- 
ing. He  was  all  the  help  I  had,  and  see  what  I  did  to 
the  horses.  He  can  talk  horse,  and  see  their  sufferins" 
condition  nearly  as  quickly  as  I  can. 

Two  weeks  have  passed.  Let  us  look  to  this  horse 
that  is  drawing  lumber.  His  feet  are  spreading  over 
the  shoe  again.  We  must  spread-^  his  shoes  again. 
The  fever  is  all  gone.  His  feet  do  not  dry  np  hard 
now.  They  need  no  packing.  He  can  rest  nights, 
and  can  get  up,  and  lie  down.  Let  us  spread  all  of  his 
shoes  out  plump   with  his  hoofs.     "Drive  on,  boy." 


82  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

I  had  some  hard  work  at  balancing  during  these 
intervals  at  Mr.  Bennett's  stables  of  boises,  and 
hundreds  of  other  changes  in  all  stages  and  degrees. 

Here  come  two  men  with  a  fine  pair  of  young 
horses. 

"  They  say  you  can  stop  any  horse  from  interfering, 
lean  sell  this  pair  in  Elmira  for  eight  hundred  dollars 
if  I  can  get  him  stopped.  I  will  give  3'ou  twenty- 
five  dollars  if  you  will  do  it.  Get  in  and  ride.  See, 
he  creeps  with  his  hind  feet." 

"I  see.  You  would  not  give  me  that  amount  of 
money  if  I  did  stop  him." 

"I  will!" 

I  had  heard  that  kind  of  bugling  too  much  to  ex- 
pect any  twenty-five  dollars,  for  I  well  knew  I  would 
not  get  it.  I  saw  at  a  glance  the  cause  of  the  horse's 
creeping  and  interfei'ing.      "Lead  in." 

Reader,  take  this  lesson.  This  horse  was  run  over. 
Too  much  weight  on  inside,  which  I  have  explained; 
lever  on  toe.  He  crept  for  this  cause.  He  hardly 
dared  to  step.  Such  ignoi-ance  !  Claiming  to  know 
so  much  and  knowing  so  little  !  The  man  told  me 
they  drove  about  six  miles,  and  went  all  clear. 

"I  guess  the  old  blower  has  stopped   him,"  said  he. 

He  shied  around  for  a  while,  separated  that  team 
for  fear  it  could  not  be  done  ngain,  then  tried  to  get 
him  back,  but  could  not.  Did  I  get  the  twenty-five 
dollars?  No;  this  is  one  case  in  thousands  worse 
than  that  in  forty-one  years'  wrestling  with  the  horse. 
Let  us  look  after  this  horse  whose  feet  we  spread. 
Try  and  keep  track  of  this  one  we  are  experimenting 
on.     It  has  been  six  weeks  since   he  was  shod.     That 


THE    HORSE  3    RESCUE,  83 

lever  has  grown  some.  His  feet  are  lower  from  top 
of  wall  to  ground  than  it  was  when  wc  fust  shod  him. 
It  has  been  growing  all  the  time.  Expanding  the  foot 
lowers  it.  The  structure  is  nearly  in  harmony  inter- 
nally. He  begins  to  play  and  shows  some  signs  of 
action.  Let  us  shoe  him.  Reader,  these  are  facts, 
not  lies.  Dress  his  feet.  What  is  this  we  come  to 
cupping  out  his  foot,  not  seen  before  ?  It  seems  to  be 
a  mass  of  corruption,  a  waterj^,  bloody  substance  I 
cannot  describe.  His  feet  are  all  the  same.  At  that 
time  I  had  never  seen  any  so  bad.  Let  us  pare  and 
clean  out.  There  seems  to  be  a  sole  under  this  cor- 
ruption. Shoe  again,  so  the  foot  will  expand  by  the 
horse's  own  weight.  It  will  go  easy  now.  This  horse 
goes  in  the  team  again  with  his  mate.  Do  not  forget: 
Like  causes  produce  like  effects  on  all  horses.  There 
is  no  safety  unless  you  understand  the  principles  laid 
down  in  this  work.  I  saw  this  horse  three  years  later 
at  w^ork.  I  did  not  go  to  him.  I  was  i-iding  through 
the  village  of  Horseheads.     Good-bye,  poor  horse. 

I  improved  the  condition  of  all  of  Mr.  Bennett's 
stable  of  horses  so  much  that  he  talked  continuallv  for 
me.  That  brought  all  of  the  shoers  down  on  me,  and 
the  doctors  in  their  rage  knew  no  bounds.  During 
this  battle  I  waked  up  at  two  o'clock  in  the  night. 
Hearing  a  noise  at  the  barn  I  went  out  and  found  it 
all  on  fire.  My  horse  and  rigs  were  all  consumed. 
That  day  was  spent  in  clearing  up.  the  wreck.  The 
next  day  I  was  again  in  the  shop  battling  for  the 
horse.  The  cripples  still  came  pouring  in  from  all 
quarters.  This  shop  was  small.  I  must  have  more 
room.     During  this  time  a  man  was  stopping  at  Mort 


84  THE   horse's  rescue. 

Bennett,  Jr's.,  hotel  teaching  a  credulous  but  ignorant 
people  how  to  cure  stiffened  and  blind  crippled  horses. 
He  lectured  in  the  streets,  and  was  hired  to  cure  the 
stifE  horses.  He  charged  three  dollars.  This  was 
done  bj  bleeding  in  the  plait  vein.  That  would  cure. 
It  would  take  a  few  months  after  the  operation.  The 
blind  were  cured  by  the  same  butchery;  in  fact,  it  was 
all  mutilation.  The  horses  there  were  a  bloody-look- 
ing lot.  This  was  carried  on  for  six  weeks.  These 
horses  all  came  to  my  shop  at  first  to  be  shod  immedi- 
ately after  the  bleeding.  I  told  them  they  were 
fooled.  I  balanced  between  contraction,  run-over 
feet,  and  leverage  as  well  as  I  could.  Mort  Bennett, 
Jr.,  had  a  very  fine  dapple-brown  horse  six  years  old, 
the  best  muscled  horse,  I  think,  I  ever  saw ;  in  fact, 
the  best  I  ever  saw  on  all  points.  He  had  the  best 
material  in  his  feet.  That  is  an  indication  of  good, 
fine  bone.  This  horse  I  had  been  shoeing.  He  was 
badly  off  his  base  on  all  of  his  feet,  and  badly  air- 
puffed  on  all  of  his  legs,  caused  by  contraction  and 
leverage.  His  feet  were  walled  up  behind  about  four 
inches.  They  had  been  allowed  to  gro^  at  the  heel 
to  keep  him  on  his  base  and  prevent  the  strain  on  his 
cords — always  pare  the  toe  and  never  the  heel.  He 
had  gone  from  bad  to  worse  until  he  was  nearly  off 
his  legs.  I  had  talked  with  Mr.  Bennett  about  his 
horse  Mike  (for  that  was  his  name)  which  was  in  this 
condition  the  first  time  I  shod  him.  I  told  Bennett 
his  feet  were  badly  contracted  and  he  could  not  be 
helped  shoeing.  He  must  be  shod.  I  did  the  best  I 
could.  It  would  not  do  to  cut  his  heels  down.  He 
would  "sore"  in  his  cords.     I  balanced  him  upas  well 


THE  horse's  rescue.  85 

as  possible.  I  well  knew  what  would  soon  be  the  re- 
sult. In  a  short  time  this  poor,  suffering  horse  fell  fv 
victim  to  that  wonderful  professor  of  great  wisdom. 
Mike  had  got  so  bad  he  could  hardly  hobble  any 
lono-er.  Something:  must  be  done.  Mike  was  sent  to 
my  shop  with  a  written  order  from  this  skilful  opera- 
tor, giving  directions  how  to  shoe  him,  which  I  well 
knew  were  all  wrong.  I  told  the  hostler  to  take  him 
back  and  tell  tliat  man  to  send  no  more  of  his  butch- 
ered horses.  I  would  not  shoe  them.  "  Tell  Murt 
Bennett,"  said  I,  "that  when  they  all  get  through  tor- 
turing Mike  I  will  remove  the  cause  of  his  troubles 
for^twenty-five  dollars  if  you  do  not  cut  his  cords  off." 
Of  course  that  set  them  all  howling. 

Eeader,  you  want  to  know  what  that  order  was.  I 
will  tell  you.  It  was  "  pare  the  toes  down  until  they 
bleed;  cut  none  from  the  heels;  shoe  thick  at  heels; 
thin  at  toe  ;  no  corks."  I  have  already  written  about 
the  condition  of  these  feet  inside  caused  by  contrac- 
tion. This  order  was  to  cut  and  trim  the  foot  so  it 
would  have  the  appearance  of  a  colt's  foot  to  look  at, 
although  it  did  not  say  so  in  words.  Eeader,  would 
that  work?  Would  it  remove  the  cause  of  that  poor 
horse's  suffering  ?  I  well  knew  it  would  not.  I  can 
tell  in  advance  what  the  result  will  be.  Caused  by 
such  work  as  that,  on  all  contracted  feet  the  cnp  foot 
suffers  the  most.  The  work  was  done  on  Mike's  feet 
by  another  sheer.  I  saw  Mike  tied  to  a  post  a  short 
time  after,  head  down.  His  hair  looked  dead  ;  lie  was 
suffering  ;  his  knees  tipped  and  shaking.  Mr.  Bennett 
came  along.  I  called  his  attention  to  it.  I  told  him 
Mike  would  g:naw  his  feet  in  ten  days.     They  had  not 


THE    HORSE  S    RESCUE. 

removed  the  cause.  Thej  had  added  more  to  it. 
After  a  few  months'  standing  that  would  be  harder  to 
cure  than  at  first.  That  horse  was  a  livery  horse.  Pie 
soon  gave  out.  The  hostler  told  me  he  w^as  groaning 
and  thrashing  all  night  and  day.  The  hips  were  worn 
through  to  the  bone.  I  called  in  to  see  him  every 
day  in  hopes  I  might  rescue  him.  The  hostler  called 
to  me,  "Doan,  Mike  is  gnawing  his  foot."  Previous 
to  this  I  had  moved  up-town,  got  in  a  larger  shop  with 
three  fires  in  it,  and  had  lectured  on  the  horse  in 
front  of  Mr.  Bennett's  hotel,  and  exposed  that  butcher 
called  "  doctor; "  called  a  crowd  while  I  was  trying  to 
teach  the  people  what  the  cause  was  of  all  their  lame 
and  crippled  horses.  I  was  dragged  out  of  the  wagon 
I  was  standing  in  by  Robert  Col  well,  the  boss  of  the 
towr.  I  stood  just  in  the  same  place  where  that 
slaughterer  had  lectured  six  weeks  before.  Pie  took 
some  money  away  with  him.  He  heard  my  lecture, 
and  sloped  that  night. 

This  book  is  called  the  "  Horse's  Bescue."  Let  us 
go  on  with  this  horse  fight ;  let  us  look  after  Mike. 
While  the  hostler  and  I  were  looking  at  Mike's  feet 
Mr.  Bennett's  came  in,  and  I  called  his  attention  to  it. 
Mike  had  gnawed  his  feet  at  the  top  of  wall  full  of 
holes,  and  his  feet  were  raked  all  over  with  his  teeth. 
While  we  were  talking,  in  came  the  shoer  with  apron 
on.  Then  there  was  another  row.  Bennett  said, 
"  Brees,  what  is  the  cause  of  this  horse  gnawing  his 
feet?"' 

"  It  is  contraction." 

He  was  right  Mr.  Brees  shod  this  horse  from  in- 
structions this  butcher  had  given  him.     It  was  not  his 


THE    horse's    hESCUE.  87 

fault ;  the  butcher  was  gone  before  either  of  them 
touched  him.  He  was  in  the  last  stases.  The  last 
time  I  shod  him  I  well  knew  it.  I  told  Mr.  Bennett  I 
could  remove  the  cause  of  all  his  trouble  in  four  days, 
take  all  of  the  air-puffs  off  his  forward  legs,  and 
straighten  his  legs.  How  is  that  to  be  done?  Make 
him  natural.  Put  the  colt's  foot  on  him.  Mr.  Brees 
says  that  cannot  be  done.  It  must  be  if  he  is  cured. 
Of  course  there  was  lots  of  money  to  be  bet.  I  was 
ready  for  that.  I  offered  to  bet  one  hundred  to  ten — 
five  hundred  to  fifty  dollars — I  could  do  it.  No 
takers.  Lots  of  talk.  Ko  help  for  the  poor  horse.  I 
did  not  get  him  that  time.  He  was  led  back  into  the 
stable  to  suffer.  Do  you  know,  1  could  not  sleep 
nights.  T  must  have  that  horse  in  some  way.  I  talked 
and  figured  in  all  shapes.  All  were  fighting;  called 
me  crazy  ;  some  called  me  a  damned  fool.  I  well 
knew  if  I  told  them  what  I  intended  to  do  I  would  not 
get  him.  I  passed  the  stable  going  to  my  shop  daily. 
I  called  to  see  Mike  ;  his  sufferings  were  intense — 
growing  worse  every  da}^  As  I  was  passing  along 
b}''  the  barn  Mr.  Bennett  said  : 

"  Doan,  I  guess  I  shall  have  to  let  you  have  that 
horse." 

"All  right." 

"Now,  if  you  do  not  cure  him  you  will  not  charge 
me  much  ?"' 

"No  ;  I  will  leave  that  to  your  honor.  I  want  him 
for  an  advertisement." 

"  What  securit}^  am  I  to  have  if  you  injure  the 
horse  ?" 

"  How  much  do  vou  call  him  worth  ?" 


88  THE    HORSE  S   RESCUE, 

"One  hundred  and  fifty  dollars." 

"  All  right.  I  will  deposit  the  money  in  the  bank 
for  3^oa,  or  I  will  state  before  these  witnesses,  I  am 
good  for  it,  and  will  pay  it  if  the  horse  dies  from  any 
cause  while  in  my  care." 

"How  long  do  you  want  him?" 

"  Four  days.  Mr.  Bennett,  this  horse  is  to  be  under 
my  control  four  days.  If  you  get  dissatisfied  during 
this  time  you  cannot  take  the  horse.  You  must  take 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  the  hoi'se  is  mine." 
Witnesses  w^ere  called  to  that  bargain. 

Reader,  you  can  see  a  man  stepping  middling  high 
and  fast  going  to  my  shop  leading  a  suffering  horse. 
In  less  than  five  minutes  his  shoes  were  off,  and  bis 
feet  were  in  warm  water  soaking.  I  had  shoers  at 
work  in  the  shop  ;  horses  coming  all  of  the  time,  lame 
and  stiff,  to  get  cured.  Horses  were  going  on  from 
bad  to  worse,  caused  by  shoeing.  All  wanted  me  to 
shoe  their  horses.  I  told  them,  "  When  I  get  this 
horse  out  of  his  suffering  I  will  be  ready  for  you." 
Some  of  them  coming  eight  or  ten  times  a  day,  would 
not  let  my  workmen  touch  their  horses.  I  had  to  put  up 
with  some  abuse.  Let  them  bawl,  I  must  cure  this  horse. 

Reader,  here  is  a  good  lesson.  Let  us  examine 
these  feet,  the  forward  ones  first.  Let  us  look  at  the 
bottom.  There  is  no  hollow  in  this  foot.  It  is,  to  all 
appearance,  a  flat  foot.  It  has  been  dressed  in  such  a 
way  that  the  inexperienced  could  not  tell  where  and 
how  it  was  changed  from  natural.  The  fact  is,  his 
feet  are  filled  up.  They  look  all  right.  His  heels  are 
walled  up  four  inches  high  from  coronet  down,  nearly 
as  high   as   the  foot   is  lonir  from  coronet  in   front  to 


THE   horse's  rescue.  89 

point  of  toe.  Being  dressed  in  this  way  tipped  his 
knees  and  ankles  the  same.  His  head  is  down  ;  he  is 
thrown  off  his  equilibrium  and  base  forward;  that  is, 
over  on  his  nose,  or  in  that  direction.  This  is  not  all : 
the  inside  of  his  foot  or  structure  is  all  out  of  har- 
mony of  action ;  his  foot  is  not  the  natural  size ;  it 
has  been  cut  down  at  the  toe  too  much,  and  it  was 
ironed  solid  and  dead.  Before  we  dress  these  feet  let 
them  soak  in  warm  water  while  we  look  this  horse 
over.  Understand,  this  horse  has  air-puffs-  on  all  of 
his  legs  half  way  to  his  knees  and  gambrels.  Let  us 
see  what  condition  his  hind  feet  are  in.  They  are 
contracted  as  bad  as  his  forward  feet.  His  heels  have 
been  cut  down  ;  his  feet  are  shoved  forward  by  this 
contraction.  His  toe  is  one  inch  too  long  ;  the  struct- 
ure is  changed  all  out  of  harmony.  He  is  obliged  to 
stand  in  this  position  and  work.  How  is  this  horse 
balanced  ?  One-half  of  him  is  one  way ;  the  other  the 
opposite.  What  must  the  condition  of  this  horse  be 
internally,  and  he  obliged  to  draw  heavy  loads  daily  ? 
Ponder,  think !  this  horse  was  fed  eighteen  quarts  of 
oats  per  day,  still  he  was  thin,  hair  dead,  no  gloss  on 
it.  He  ate  ravenously,  and  grain  passed  him  whole. 
The  fact  is,  he  swallowed  his  feed  without  masticating 
it,  nearly  crazed  with  pain  night  and  day  ;  all  out  of 
harmony  all  over — internally  and  externally.  I  was 
obliged  to  keep  heating  water  all  of  the  time.  I 
heated  it  on  my  forge.  This  poor  horse  would  fall 
asleep  and  partly  fall,  and  tip  the  tub  over  and  spill 
the  water.  1  had  business  enough,  yet  I  was  abused, 
while  I  was  at  this  work,  by  many  different  ones  for 
neglecting  my  business.     They  all  had  cripples  they 


90  THE   horse's  rescue. 

wanted  cured.  My  men  I  paid  $2  per  day.  Customers 
would  not  let  them  shoe  their  horses.  They  said  they 
could  get  their  horses  spoilt  anywhere.  No  argument 
could  convince  them  I  could  not  cure  all  of  their 
horses  shoeing.  Some  I  could  cui-e,  and  had  cured 
The}^  all  wanted  it  done,  and  wanted  me  to  do  it.  My 
God  !  what  a  load  on  my  poor  back  and  head — nearly 
all  cripples.  They  were  increasing  on  me.  I  dis- 
charged my  help  to  save  money.  They  were  of  no 
use  to  me.  I  did  not  want  to  earn  all  of  the  money 
to  pay  them  to  sit  and  look  at  me  work.  The  fact  is, 
I  was  obliged  to  lock  m}^  shop  and  put  curtains  up  at 
the  windows  in  order  to  go  on  with  my  work.  They 
kept  up  such  a  confusion  I  could  not  work.  And  yet 
there  was  not  much  to  be  learned.  It  was  their  opin- 
ions and  beliefs  and  abuse. 

Let  us  see  if  we  can  go  on  with  this  work  now. 
This  poor  horse  continues  to  fall  asleep.  We  can't 
pare  his  feet  yet,  he  has  had  no  rest.  Some  of  the 
pain  has  gone.  We  will  have  to  let  him  soak  and 
sleep  a  while;  we  can't  work  on  him  3'et.  Some  one 
pounding  on  the  door  every  half  hour  for  admittance. 
No  admittance!  I  was  alone  in  the  shop.  After  I 
had  been  annoyed  awhile  I  paid  no  more  attention  to 
i\  That  set  them  howling.  All  I  could  do  that  day 
w:is  to  wash  Mike  in  warm  water,  keep  his  feet  in  the 
tub,  and  let  him  sleep.  A  good  night's  rest  will  help 
us  both.  In  the  shoo  ao^ain  in  tlie  raorninsf,  Frank 
can  keep  Mike's  feet  in  the  tub,  while  I  shoe  and  fix 
U!)  other  cripples.  I  must  have  money  to  keep  the 
wolf  from  the  door.  Let  us  pare  an!  cup  out  his 
f  j>ot.     Let   us  cut  the   heels  down   half.      Thev  are 


THE    horse's    rescue.  91 

that  mucli  too  high  at  least.  Pare  none  from  toe; 
cup  it  out ;  it  is  filled  up;  it  is  hard  as  a  stone.  That 
will  do,  now.  Soak  him  more;  when  it  gets  soft  we 
will  cup  it  more.  The  doors  are  open  now.  Mr. 
Brees  comes  in,  apron  on,  to  see  and  talk.  His  shop 
is  nearly  opposite  from  mine.  All  in  a  bluster,  he 
said  :  "  That  is  not  doctoring  horses  ;  that  is  nursing." 
"Yes,  this  horse  needed  some  of  that."  This  uproar 
was  kept  up  by  many  in  the  shop  and  all  over  the 
town.  Being  in  the  business  of  tracing  cause  to  ef- 
fect and  effect  to  cause,  I  well  knew  what  ailed  them. 
Beat  and  excel  them  was  what  I  wanted  to  do,  and 
relieve  the  suffering  horse.  That  is  what  I  went  there 
for.  They  v/ere  all  strangers  to  me.  Let  them 
fight  while  we  look  at  this  horse.  If  you  wish  to 
learn  a  lesson,  look  at  the  horse  we  are  working  on. 
Now  he  stands  braced  out  forward  ;  now  his  knees 
are  tipped,  yet  his  cords  hurt  him.  He  can  scarcely 
stand.  How  is  that?  We  cut  his  lieels  down ;  tliat 
is  the  cause.  Where  is  the  weight  of  that  horse 
now,  or  what  is  the  effect  of  cutting  his  heels  clown? 
Before  we  did  that  I  told  vou  how  his  weight  was 
divided,  and  the  effect  of  it.  This  operation  throws 
him  off  his  base  with  two-thirds  of  his  weicrht  on  his 
hind  legs,  which  were  also  badly  off  their  base  before 
we  cut  his  heels  down.  He  should  be  balanced  or 
poised  in  the  center,  and  his  equilibrium  restored,  that 
is  equalize  his  weicrht  on  the  center  of  each  foot,  and 
balance  him  between  the  four.  This  lookslike  a  rather 
hard  job,  yet  it  can  be  done.  -It  will  take  a  little  brain, 
work  withal.  We  must  get  rid  of  some  hallooing 
around  this  shop;  no  one  can   do  anything  this  way. 


92  THE   horse's  rescue. 

Lock  the  shop  again  !  Let  us  finish  cupping  out  his 
feet.  It  will  not  do  to  cut  away  much  near  the  wall 
at  toe;  it  is  thin  there  now.  Pare  down  next  to  the 
point  of  frog  until  you  can  spring  the  sole  a  little  with 
a  pair  of  shoeing  pincers  all  around  the  frog.  Pare 
the  brace  very  slanting  toward  the  frog.  Care  should 
be  taken  to  cut  the  sole  even.  Feel  with  pincers. 
There,  these  feet  are  dressed  for  shoeing.  Keep  them 
in  warm  water.  They  have  been  days  all  of  the  time. 
In  comes  Mr.  Bennett.  He  says  he  is  losing  two  dol- 
lars per  day  by  the  horse  lying  still. 

"Mr.  Bennett,"  says  I,  "my  time  is  not  up  yet. 
This  horse's  feet  are  badly  contracted.  I  cannot  fix 
him  unless  I  have  time." 

Now  we  will  make  a  pair  of  shoes,  narrow  web,  for 

this  horse  has  a  very  thick  shell ;    six  nails  on  each 

side.     Nail  clear  around   to  heel — light  nails.     I  am 

going  to  spread   these   feet.     It  will  be  necessary  to 

turn  the  shoe-heels  down   a  little   to  hold  against  the 

brace,  so  as  to  spread  at  the  heel  and  take  the  strain 

off  the  nails  and   the  shell.     ISTail  solid,  and  clinch. 

The  shoe  should  rest  only  on  the  shell  all  around;  the 

foot  should  represent  an  inclined  plain  clear  to  the  very 

edo-e  of  the  wall,  and  be  left  so  when  ironed.     All 

should  slant  toward  the  center  of  foot.     The  doors  are 

ooen.     It  is   nearly  dark.      Mr.  Brees  came   in  in  a 

bluster  when  I  was  at  work  on  the  last  foot,  drawing 

the  shoe   down  solid,  he  looking  on.     When  done,  I 

dropped  the   foot  down,  and  said:  "There,   Mike,  I 

guess  I  have  got  you  fixed  at  last."     I  had  been  som.e 

time  getting  these  shoes  on  to  suit  me.     They  did  suit 

me,  for  the  opei-ation  called  out  the  remark  I  made. 


THE   horse's  rescue.  93 

Said  Mr.  Brees  :  "I  think  you  have  fixed  him."  I^e 
starts  for  the  hotel,  and  tells  Bennett  I  am  spoiling  his 
horse  so  I  can  buy  him  cheaper.  That  starts  another 
uproar.  I  was  in  some  fear  they  would  get  the  horse 
away  from  me.  Yet  I  did  not  fear  them,  I  held  the 
horse.  Let  us  look  at  these  feet  again.  Eeaders.  you  *  ' 
remember  how  they  were  when  we  first  examined 
them.  Now  look  in  the  bottom  of  these  feet.  There 
is  a  deep  hole  in  this  foot.  It  is  cupped  out  deep,  and 
yet  it  is  not  cut  through  in  any  place ;  no  blood 
drawn.  His  foot  is  narrow,  and  the  shoe  follows  the 
shell  around  clear  to  the  heel  even.  The  foot  has  an 
elongated  appearance,  and  it  is  so.  The  horse  stands 
braced  out,  chest  sunken  in,  shoulders  dropped  back, 
head  down.  He  does  not  gnaw  his  feet.  He  soon 
quit  that  habit  when  I  got  him  in  my  care,  and  yet 
he  can  hardly  walk.  "  Mike,  to  morrow  is  the  last 
day  I  can  hold  3^ou  on  the  contract.  We  must  fix 
you  for  the  night.  You  can  lie  down.  That  will 
save  your  cords.  Your  poor  feet  ache  yet,-  and  they 
are  feverish.  To  prevent  their  drying  up  too  much 
we  will  pack  your  feet  with  sponge,  filled  with  water, 
and  tie  cloths  on  them.  It  will  not  do  to  tie  them 
tight;  that  would  give  you  pain.  We  will  gather  the 
cloth  above  the  hoof,  and  sew  it  so  that  it  will  not  hurt 
or  stop  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  You  must  have 
a  good  soft  bed.  It  is  late  at  night.  I  will  let  you 
out  of  some  of  your  trouble  before  the  sun  goes  down 
another  day."  This  horse  is  not  in  my  barn,  but  in 
Mr.  Bennett's,  which  is  open  to  all.  This  work,  when 
I  am  gone,  must  be  inspected  by  all  to  see  what  I  have 
done.     Mr.   Brees  saw  his  heels  cut  down,  saw   him 


94  THE  horse's  rescue. 

thrown  back  in  ihis  position.     All  talk.     And  I  let 
tliem.     I  bad  to. 

Mr.  Brees's  nepbew  bad  a  good  eigbt-year-old  liorse, 
which  I  wanted  to  get  to  cure.  I  told  him  I  would 
do  the  job  for  ten  dollars,  as  it  would  be  an  easy  one. 
When  I  first  talked  with  him  I  could  not  persuade 
him  to  let  me  have  the  horse,  and  I  dropped  down  on 
the  price.  It  was  of  no  use.  I  was  obliged  to  give  it 
up.  His  horse's  heels  v/ere  walled  up  very  high, 
tipped  on  knee;  Jame  in  one  foot — lame  in  both,  but 
he  eould  not  see  it  I  told  the  owner  that  if  he  was 
mine  I  would  cut  the  heels  down,  and  straighten  the 
horse  out  very  quick.  He  looked  at  me  when  I  was 
talking.  I  walked  away  in  search  of  another  suf- 
ferer, which  I  should  soon  have  room  for. 

Let  us  go  and  see  how  Mike  is  getting  along.  It  is 
morning,  and  not  light  yet.  All  is  quiet,  all  sleeping. 
We  will  have  to  go  to  the  shop,  heat  some  water,  take 
the  tub  to  the  barn,  and  soak  his  feet  while  he  eats 
his  breakfast.     Then  we  will  take  him  to  the  shop. 

It  may  be  necessary  to  state  the  plan  I  intended  to 
follow  out  in  experimenting  to  prevent  inflammation 
taking  place  by  expanding  Mike's  feet  so  much  at  one 
time.  I  well  understood  this  contraction  and  expand- 
ing principle  that  was  constantly  at  work,  caused  by 
wet  and  dry  weather,  and  tight  and  loose  shoes.  It 
did  not  kill  all  its  victims,  but  a  great  many  it  did. 
I  had  now  to  spread  tlie  foot  and  flatten  it  out  at 
once.  If  I  did  not  do  it,  there  would  be  no  cure. 
The  plan  was  to  have  the  foot  as  soft  and  pliable  as  I 
could  make  it,  so  as  not  to  hurt  the  horse.  Tiien  I  must 
watch  his  feet  bv  feeling  to  see  that  no  unnatural  heat 


THE    HORSE  S    RESCrE.  95 

should  get  the  start  of  me,  and  I  prevented  it  bj  soak. 
ing  and  packing  with  sponge,  as  I  have  previously  de- 
scribed,   after   I    had    spread    his   feet,     I  think  this 
horse's  feet  are  soft  enongh  to  spread,  and  I  am  going 
to  try  to  spread  them.     The  shop  is  locked  ;    curtains 
up  at  the  windows.     I  am  alone.     I  cannot  hold   his 
feet  and  spread  them  ;  mv  arms  are  not  strong  enouoh 
to  do  it  in  this  position.     I  can  make  a  screw,  but  that 
will  take  me   nearly  all  day,  and  my  time  is  growino- 
shoi-t.     Tliis  horse  is  expected  to  be  on   tl^e   road  to- 
morrow.    It  will  be  of  no  use  to  ask  these  fighters  to 
help  me,  and  I  have   other  reasons  for  not  Vv'antino- 
their  assistance,  whicli  I  will  explain  hereafter.     I  will 
take  Mike  to  my  barn,  and  get  my  wife  to  hold  up 
liis  feet.     The  reader  can  see  a  frail  woman  holding 
up  the  foot  of  a  horse  that  weighs  about  twelve  hun- 
dred, thrown  off  his  base  bv  contraction  and  leverage 
struggling  to  stand  on  one  foot  which  he  takes  away 
many  times;   it  hurts  him  so  to  stand.     Do  you  know 
s]}e  was  in  great  danger  of  getting  hurt?     She  weighs 
about  one  hundred  pounds.     We   were  alone  in  this 
barn,  but  we  accomplislied   this  difficult  task.     It  is 
two  good  men's  work.     We  flattened   his  feet  out  by 
spreading  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch.     Look  at  the 
bottom  now.     It  has  the  same  appearance  to  look  at 
that  it  did  when  we  commenced  work  on   it,  but  the 
cup  is  all  gone,  and  the  foot  is  flat      Who  can  tell  how 
this  is  done  unless  he   sees   the  operation  ?     I^o  man. 
This  horse's  heels  are  low  now.     I  had  cut  them  down 
half  or  more,  and  expanding  lowered  them  still  further 
The  horse's  heels  are  wide  ;    his  foot  is  nearly  round  ; 
he  has  got  the  colt's  foot  on,  and   the  structure  of  his 


•96  THE  horse's  rescue. 

foot  is  all  in  harmony  inside  and  out.  His  body  goes 
forward  on  its  base  with  weight  in  center  of  the  foot. 

It  will  be  well  to  more  minutely  explain  this  process 
of  preparing  feet  of  this  kind  for  operation.  This 
horse's  feet  were  badly  rolled  up  in  at  the  base  of  heels. 
Expanding  raises  the  heels  until  the  wall  gets  perpen- 
dicular. "When  it  passes  the  line  it  lowers.  In  order 
to  have  it  come  in  perfect  harmony  when  expanding, 
you  must  use  all  the  judgment  you  can  command.  If 
you  leave  the  heels  too  high  you  will  tip  his  knee;  if 
too  low,  it  will  strain  the  cords,  and  either  will  throw 
the  horse  off  his  base  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  He 
will  not  move  well,  though  it  will  not  kill  him.  After 
the  foot  ,has  been  expanded,  the  shoe  should  not  be 
taken  off  again  in  any  case  until  the  hoof  has  had  time 
to  grow  and  settle.  Then  it  may  be  removed.  If 
you  should  take  the  shoe  off  before,  the  foot  would  go 
back,  which  would  create  great  heat,  and  cause  great 
suffering  to  the  horse;  to  get  him  out  of  which  the 
same  work  would  liave  to  be  done  over  again. 

But  we  will  finij^h  this  horse.  As  I  said,  he  has  got  to 
go  on  the  road  to-morrow.  Spreading  this  horse's  feet 
did  not  seem  to  effect  him  much  at  first.  He  tried 
them  by  stepping  first  upon  one,  then  the  other.  For 
a  while  I  watched  him.  His  head  went  up.  I  moved 
him  moderately  around  the  barn  floor.  At  first  he  did 
not  seem  to  have  full  control  of  his  legs.  I  was  in 
danger  of  being  hit  with  his  feet,  and  yet  it  was  no 
fault  of  his,  the  change  being  so  great.  Let  us  give 
liim  a  chance  to  recover;  he  is  changed  in  many  ways. 
Let  us  take  him  outdoors  and  lead  him  around.  In 
no  case  at  first  get  on  the  horse ;  he  has  all  he  can  do, 


THE  horse's  rescue.  97 

if  he  is  changed  on  all  of  his  feet  at  one  time,  to  hold 
his  own  weight,  until  he  has  time  to  recover  his  equilib- 
rium and  balance.  It  gives  him  a  sick  and  weaken- 
ing sensation  ;  all  is  changed  so  suddenly  internally 
and  externally.  I  led  him  on  the  back  streets.  He 
soon  wanted  to  trot,  and  I  ran  with  him,  my  hand  hold- 
ing his  halter  at  the  head.  After  running  some  time 
with  him,  his  legs  flying  in  all  shapes,  he  seemed  to  go 
faster.  We  started  through  the  business  part  of  the 
town,  which  I  was  obliged  to  do  to  get  to  my  shop. 
Mike  swung  me  and  carried  me  clear  from  the  ground 
many  times  with  his  head.  I  could  not  help  it.  He 
was  a  powerful  horse  in  all  ways.  He  was  coming  to 
himself.  I  got  him  in  the  shop  as  quick  as  I  could, 
locked  the  doors,  got  his  feet  in  some  hot  water, 
rubl:)ed  and  washed  his  legs,  and  rubbed  all  of  the  air- 
puffs  off.  The  air-puff  is  caused  by  the  skin  being 
loosened  bv  unnatural  action  of  the  feet  and  legs, 
which  forms  a  vacuum,  which  fills  with  air.  It  in  no 
case  should  be  opened.  The  cause  is  removed.  Let 
us  rub  the  air  out  through  the  skin  while  Mike's  feet 
feet  are  soaking  in  warm  water.  They  will  stay  out  as 
long  as  we  can  keep  him  natural.  Nearly  all  horses 
are  badly  changed  f]'om  nature  when  air-puffs  appear 
in  many  ways  and  stages.  Of  course  that  sail  through 
the  town  attracted  the  attention  of  many.  Some  said 
I  was  crazy;  some  called  me  a  "damned  old  fool." 
I  understood  all  of  that  blowing  too  well  to  let  it  effect 
me.  I  got  in  the  shop  and  let  them  pound  the  door. 
I  kept  on  a  straight  line  and  on  my  base,  which  they 
did  not  at  all  times.  Let  me  paint  a  picture,  while 
Mike's  feet  are  soaking,  of  what  I  saw  pass   this  shop 


98  THE  hobse's  kescue. 

one  day.  This  is  only  one  of  thousands,  whicli  can  be 
seen  almost  any  day,  and  many  times  some  days,  if 
you  have  eyes.  The  railroad  crossing  was  close  to  my 
shop.  They  had  raised  and  graded  so  it  made  a  little 
rise.  I  saw  a  horse  and  wagon  coming,  the  horse  thin 
in  flesh.  The  wagon  had  two  seats;  three  persons 
were  on  each  seat,  and  there  were  some  bags  in  the 
hind  part  of  the  wagon.  A  man  on  the  front  seat, 
with  a  hickory  club  as  large  as  a  broom- handle,  five 
feet  long,  was  pounding  the  horse,  which  could  hardly 
move.  The  man  was  badly  off  his  balance.  I  cast  my 
eyes  to  the  horse's  feet.  They  were  very  long;  his  hind 
ones  so  long  that  he  could  not  rise  over  the  lever  with- 
out breaking  his  legs.  I  stepped  out  into  the  road  and 
stooped  down  to  see  what  shape  he  put  his  feet  in  to 
get  up  that  slight  grade.  No  two  feet  were  traveling 
on  the  same  line.  He  was  wringing  and  twisting  to 
draw  that  load,  and  that  club  was  playing  on  him  con- 
stantly. He  turned  his  toes  some  in,  some  out.  He 
could  not  rise  over  that  lever.  Do  you  know  what  I 
thought  at  that  time?  Can  it  be  possible  the  creator 
has  made  such  a  botch  making  mankind  ?  This  has 
the  appearance  of  a  perfect  botch.  It  has  occurred  to 
me  many  times  since  that  man  was  not  in  any  wise  per- 
fected yet.  He  has  still  something  to  learn,  and  I  con- 
tinue to  hold  the  same  opinion.  Let  us  look  this 
wagon  over.  It  comes  in  all  right,  as  this  work  is 
called  "  The  Horse's  Kescue."  This  wagon  is  heavy 
enough  for  two  horses  ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  two  horse  wagon. 
Every  wheel  makes  a  separate  track,  something 
as  a  snake  would  crawl ;  wheels  grinding  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  axle,  which  has  not  been  oiled  in 


THE     HORSE  S    RESCUE.  99 

three  months;  so  much  gather  that  thej  are  constantly 
sliding  on  the  ground,  trying  to  keep  on  a  straight 
line.  If  they  could  move  the  way  they  are  set  they 
would  travel  on  lines  that  would  cross  each  other  sixtv 
rods  ahead  of  the  point  where  the  wagon  stood.  Tlie 
driver  being  badly  off  his  base,  and  out  of  harmoiiv, 
and  the  wagon  running  on  the  wrong  principle,  added 
greatly  to  the  horse's  suffering.  The  poor  h  rse,  also 
off  his  base,  trying  to  draw  that  heavy  load  up  an  in- 
clined plain  rising  over  a  long  lever,  has  rather  hard 
work ;  and  yet  he  had  to  endure  it,  and  it  is  no  fault 
of  his.  Look  out  for  that  lever !  There  is  a  power 
in  lever  principle. 

After  this  poor  horse  has  dragged  that  load  up  hills 
many  miles,  for  his  reward  he  is  stabled  in  some  old 
rookery  you  could  throw  a  cat  through  ;  cold,  bleak 
wind  and  snow  howling  through  ;  some  old  rotten 
clover-stack  hay  for  his  rations;  the  place  where  he  is 
tied  and  obliged  to  stand  has  not  been  cleaned  out  in 
three  months,  and  ofttimes  more ;  his  hind  parts  ele- 
vated according  to  the  size  of  the  pile. 

Eeader,  the  horse  has  four  legs.  It  makes  a  vast 
difference  to  him  how  he  stands;  give  him  his  head, 
he  will  tell  you  whether  the  position  he  is  obliged 
to  stand  is  not  right.  How  is  he  going  to  rest  lying 
in  this  position — hind  parts  elevated  in  this  way  ? 
Some  morning  he  is  found  cast.  Then  club  and  boots 
are  used  to  help  him  up;  if  this  does^  not  raise  him,  a 
chain  is  put  around  him,  and  he  is  drawn  out  of  his 
uncomfortable  position.  He  cannot  rise.  The  hard 
treatment,  that  lever,  the  abuse  he  has  been  obliged  to 
endure,  have  exhausted  all  of  his  power  of  endurance. 


100  THE    horse's   KESCUE. 

And  this  is  no  uncommon  thing ;  it  is  a  very  u;?nal 
thing.  Take  a  peek  around.  I  have  been  peeking 
around  many  years.  I  went  into  a  shop  in  Auburn 
city,  and  I  saw  two  men  turning  horse  shoes.  I 
looked  at  them  a  few  minutes,  then  walked  away.  In 
a  short  time  I  met  one  of  these  men  on  the  street.  He 
said  to  me : 

"  Were  you  in  my  shop  peeking  arpund  to-day  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  I ;   "  I  was  in  your  shop." 

"  I  can  beat  any  man  in  the  state  turning  shoes," 
he  rejoined;  "lean  turn  one  hundred  shoes  in  just 
foi'ty  minutes !"  All  talking  about  the  number  of 
shoes  made,  and  none  about  the  principle  the  work 
should, be  done  on.  This  man  was  badly  oQ  his  bal- 
ance. There  is  great  danger  of  shipwrecks  and  collis- 
ions when  driver,  horse,  and  wagon  are  all  out  of  har- 
mony. But  let  us  not  forget  Mike.  The  plan  must 
be  carried  out  to  prevent  inflammation  taking  place  in 
Mike's  feet.  I  was  with  him,  taking  his  feet  out  of 
warm  water  for  a  time  to  see  if  I  could  feel,  by  placing 
my  hand  on  his  hoofs,  any  change  of  heat  arising.  I 
did  not  perceive  any  change.  I  thought  my  plan  was 
going  to  work.  Of  course  there  was  no  sleep  for  me 
that  night.  This  horse  was  out  of  my  control  in  the 
morning.  He  would  be  put  on  the  road  the  next  day. 
There  was  no  use  in  protesting ;  they  all  knew  every- 
thing that  was  worth  knowing,  and  what  they  did  not 
know  was  of  no  use  to  any  one.  I  had  to  take  all  of  the 
chances  and  do  the  hard  work.  When  daylight  came 
you  might  have  seen  a  tired  man  standing  by  this 
thankful  horse  soaking  his  feet  in  warm  water,  and 
washing  his  cords,  helping  them  to  change  back  to 


THE     horse's    rescue.  101 

their  natural  place  to  give  him  as  little  suffering  as 
possible.  That  plan  holds  good  yet.  It  does  help 
and  relieve  the  suffering  sooner  than  if  it  was  not 
done.  There  is  one  thing  yet  to  be  explained,  that  is, 
how  thatprocessofspreadingMike'sfeet  worked.  When 
the  foot  contracts  the  sole  rises  in  the  center.  That 
pushes  the  structure  of  the  foot  up  in  the  center  and 
raises  it  out  of  the  cup  or  coronet  at  the  top.  Expand- 
ing lets  it  down.  These  wonderfully  wise  people  could 
not  see  how  this  was  done.  The  hostler  swung  his  hat. 
''Doan  has  cared  Mike.  I  don't  know  how,  but  he 
has  done  it."  The  shoes  had  to  be  looked  at  and  pat- 
terned after.  They  are  just  the  thing.  Of  course 
they  must  steal  the  secret;  it  is  a  big  thing.  Those 
lips  on  the  shoes  at  the  heel  are  not  of  much  use.  He 
has  cut  the  heel  down.  Mr  Brees  and  his  relative 
(the  one  who  had  the  stiff  horse  I  tried  to  get)  are 
going  to  cure  their  horse  I  saw  in  the  shop.  I  could 
sit  in  my  shop  and  look  in  theirs.  This  horse  being 
buckskin  in  color,  we  will  call  him  Buckskin.  Before 
we  commence  on  this  horse  we  must  see  Mike  off  on 
the  road.  He  was  to  let  out.  I  was  at  the  barn  and 
watched  him.  He  was  whipped  up  when  he  turned 
around  the  corner  and  fell  on  his  knees.  He  was  not 
yet  used  to  the  change.  But  he  was  driven  and 
hurried  off  his  legs,  which  I  told  them  over  and 
over  again,  they  must  not  do.  ^  I  thought  to  my- 
self, "What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  do  anything  with 
such  a. pack  of  damned  fools?"  I  am  not  yet  done 
with  poor  Mike.  We  will  let  him  sail  a  while.  He 
is  still  in  very  bad  shape. 

Let  us  see  what  they  are  doing  for  poor  Buckskin. 


102  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

We  can  see  from   my  shop.     This  is  a  good  time  to 
trace  cause  to  effect.    They  are  cutting  his  heels  down. 
That  is  right  so  far.  but  they  have  left  the  toe  at  least 
one  inch  too  long.     They  have  got  his  shoes  patterned 
after  Mike's  as  near  as  they  can.     He  is  coming  out 
of  the  shop.     He  has  to  be  pulled   out,  for  he  can 
hardly  move.     What  is   his   condition  now?     He  is 
thrown  back  off  his  base  the  furthest  I  ever  saw.    Let 
them  work  ;  it's  no  use  to  say  anything  to  them;  it 
would  only  set  them  to  bawling.     The  crowd  gathers 
around  this  horse.     All  talk  ;  no  one  knows  what  ails 
this  poor  horse.       The  owner  looks   rather  worried. 
His  horse  is  in  a  worse  condition  now  than  ever,  he  is 
braced  out  so  bad  that  his  back  sinks  down.     If  you 
should  get  on  him  he  could  not  hold  your  weight.    He 
can  hardly  move      This  horse  stand  now  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  street  from  Mr.  Brees's  shop.     It  is  no 
use  to  talk  to  them.     They  all  fight  me.     Let  us  walk 
away.     We  will  watch  that  horse    and  see  where  his 
suffering  ends.     I  have  many  horses  to  look  to.    They 
need  my  care.     I  can't  relieve  them  all,  but  I  will  do 
all  I  can.     I  work    for   the  horse,   not   the    man.     I 
nearly  always  had  from  one  to  four  horses  in  my  barn. 
Some  my  own;  some  belonging  to  others;  and  which 
I  was  caring  for  in  different  stables,  and  my  shop  was 
to  be  kept  up.     I  had  almost  a  night  and  day  business 
to  watch  the  changes  and  effects  in  all  stages     I  was 
determined  to  get  master  of  this  complicated  business. 
I  was  sure  there  was  a  way  out,  and  I  would  find  it, 
let  it  cost  what  it  might.     It  is  morning  again.     While 
going  to  my  shop  I  passed  the  place  where^we  left  the 
buckskin  horse.     He  was  about  two  rods  from  where 


THE  horse's  rescue.  103 

we  left  him  the  night  before.  His  owner  was  with 
him,  and  looked  worried.  He  had  a  keg  with  a  swab 
in  it,  and  was  daubing  his  feet.  I  walked  in.  I  felt 
.sorry  for  him  and  his  horse.  Said  I,  "What  is  that 
staff  you  are  putting  on?" 

"It  is  tar,  keroSene,  and  soft-soap." 

"  Mr.  Brees,  it  is  of  no  use.  You  had  better  give 
me  eight  dollars.  Your  uncle  cannot  steal  this  great 
discovery.  (I  know  not  whether  he  was  his  uncle  or 
not,  but  their  names  were  Brees.)  The  principle  is 
what  I  want  to  lay  down  correct  in  this  work.  They 
had  disabled  this  horse  completely  by  throwing  him 
off  his  base,  cutting  his  beds  down.  They  had 
lengthened  the  lever  so  much  it  had  sprung  his  back 
down  and  thrown  nearly  all  of  his  weight  back  of  cen- 
ter. There  he  was  fastened,  and  was  obliged  to  stay. 
They  knew  no  way  out  of  this  serious  trouble.  I 
would  have  helped  them  out,  but  they  would  not  take 
any  lessons.  This  was  early  in  the  fall.  The  horse 
was  missins:,  and  I  lost  track  of  him  for  a  long  time. 
I  think  it  was  in  the  month  of  March  following  that  I 
saw  Mr.  Brees  doing  his  chores  at  his  barn.  I  went 
in.  There  lay  this  Buckskin  horse.  I  asked,  "Has 
this  horse  been  lying  in  this  condition  all  of  this 
time?" 

"Yes." 

"  Does  he  stand  up?" 

"  He  can,  but  lies  down  nearly  all  of  the  time." 

"  Are  those  the  shoes  you  had  put  on  last  fall  ?" 

''Yes." 

"  Have  they  ever  been  reset  since  ?" 

"No." 


104  THE   hokse's  rescue. 

"Mr.  Brees,  it  would  be  my  advice  to  pull  those 
shoes  off,  cat  off  his  toes  some,  pare  the  toes  down 
well ;  cut  no  more  from  the  heels  ;  give  him  room  to 
travel  around,  and  put  no  more  shoes  on  him  for  six^ 
months.  That  will  help  him  some.  It  will  not  cure 
him  bj  any  means." 

He  did  so.  I  saw  him  driving  Buckskin  many  months 
afterward,  and  he  was  quite  a  horse.  His  knees  were 
tipped  yet,  but  if  they  had  done  what  I  did  to  Mike's 
feet  after  catting  his  heels  down,  and  shortened  his 
toes  a  little  more,  he  would  have  gone  back  on  his  base 
or  nearly  so ;  instead,  it  threw  him  further  off.  Ife 
would  have  straightened  his  legs  at  the  same  tirae_ 
Mike  is  iu  trouble  again,  but  it  does  not  surprise  me. 
I  have  got  used  to  this  business.  It  has  become  a 
common  thing;  I  well  knew  he  would  be.  He  was  in 
a  very  bad  shape  when  he  started  from  the  barn.  He 
has  been  on  the  road  about  two  weeks.  Mr.  Bennett 
said  : 

''Doan,  there  is  something  wrong  about  Mike's  hind 
parts." 

"Yes  ;  there  always  has  been  since  I  knew  him." 

"  Can  you  fix  him  behind  ?" 

"Yes,  if  I  can  have  him  in  my  care  and  control 
four  days.  Nobody  must  use  or  exercise  him  but  my. 
self  during  this  time." 

"  All  right,"  says  Bennett,  "  go  ahead." 

It  is  a  hard  job  to  get  this  horse's  hind  feet  in  the 
soaking  tub  and  keep  them  in.  My  little  boy  Frank 
cannot  do  it;  that's  a  man's  business.  I  shall  have  to 
neglect  my  shoeing  for  a  while  almost  entirely  to  at. 
tend  to  this  horse  and  those  I  have  in  the  barn.  Mike  was 


THE  horse's  rescue.,  105 

was  divided  against  himself.  His  forward  parts  were 
changed  so  as  to  let  his  weight  go  back  on  the  base,  which 
it  did  when  he  stood  still.  But  his  hind  parts  were  con- 
stantly pulling  his  fore  parts  off  the  base — always  on 
a  strain — when  he  was  on  his  feet  (which  I  have  ex- 
plained). When  traveling  he  had  to  draw  his  hind 
parts  with  his  forward  parts  over  that  lever,  caused  by 
contraction,  drawing  his  hind  feet  forward  under  his 
belly.  It  hurt  him  so  that  it  caused  him  to  amble. 
I  saw  when  he  left  the  barn  what  position  he  was 
thrown  in.  But  what  could  I  do  ?  They  were  all  so 
smart,  and  they  were  losing  so  much  money  by  their 
horses  lying  still.  Some  people  are  always  stopping 
spile  holes  and  leaving  the  bung  out.  The  fact  is, 
Mike  was  divided  against  himself.  How  are  we  going 
to  put  him  in  harmony  of  action,  balance  him  in  the 
center,  and  take  those  large  air-puffs  off?  The  prin- 
ciple we  applied  on  his  forward  feet  will  work  behind 
more  than  it  did  forward  to  change  him.  It  seems  to 
effect  all  liorses  more  on  their  hind  legs  chang- 
ing them  back  to  natural,  and  it  affects  them  behind 
more  to  change  from  natural  to  uimatural.  I  soaked 
Mike's  feet,  spread  them,  and  carried  out  my  plan  as 
nearly  as  I  could  under  the  circumstances  and  the  sur- 
roundings I  had  to  contend  with.  The  sole  is  the 
guide  in  spreading  all  feet.  Some  require  more,  some 
less,  according  to  the  degrees  of  change.  No  rule  can 
be  laid  down.  If  the  foot  is  skilTully  dressed  and  pre- 
pared, you  can  spread  until  the  sole  comes  down  nearly 
flat.  You  must  look  when  you  are  spreading  to  see 
if  you  can  see  it  come  down.  It  must  spread  at  the 
same  time  clear  to  the  top  of  the  wall.     If  you  do  not 


106  THE  horse's  refcue. 

see  it  flatten  after  you  have  spread  a  little,  yoa  must 
stop  and  walk  the  horse  aronud  or  run  with  him. 
Spread  in  pairs  so  as  to  drive  the  sole  down.  Look 
and  see  how  much  it  has  come  down.  Soak  in  warm 
water,  spread  again ;  continue  to  move  him  around 
until  the  sole  is  down  flat.  Some  horses  are  so  bad 
their  feet  are  pushed  clear  out  of  the  cup  at  the  top 
and  pinched  in  at  the  bottom.  If  great  care  is  not 
taken  in  preparing  the  fooc  for  this  operation,  the  foot 
will  get  pinched  at  the  top  of  the  wall,  the  bone  not 
having  room  to  go  down  between  the  cup  at  the  top. 
It  would  not  kill  the  horse,  but  it  would  cause  him 
suffering  for  a  few  hours,  then  it  would  matterate  and 
cause  a  flaw  in  the  hoof.  It  should  be  spread  enough 
to  give  it  room  to  go  down  before  he  is  driven  much. 
These  are  cases  of  long  standing,  as  a  general  rule,  but 
there  are  many  exceptions  to  that.  If  you  do  not 
cut  the  heels  well  down  you  will  be  likely  to  get  him 
pinched,  for  this  reason  :  it  would  spring  the  foot  out 
at  the  bottom,  which  would  throw  it  together  at  the 
top.  You  must  see  it  go  together  both  top  and 
bottom. 

Let  us  look  at  Mike  after  spreading  his  hind  feet, 
and  see  where  he  has  gone  to,  caused  by  spreading  the 
foot  half  an  inch  His  body  has  all  gone  forward  on 
the  base  ;  his  back  iias  lowered  across  his  loin  ;  his 
forward  parts  are  i-elieved  of  their  constant  strain.  He 
is  "ftnited  again  ;  that  is,  the  cause  is  removed.  Some 
hard  work  will  have  to  be  done  yet  to  make  him  com- 
fortable. The  air-pufls  have  all  gone  around  on  the 
front  side  of  his  legs.  It  hurts  him.  He  stands  up 
on  his  toes.     He  won't  }-)ut   liis  heels   down  to  a  flat 


THE   horse's   rescue.  107 

rest.  He  must  be  got  down  on  his  feet  one  at  a  time, 
stand  him  in  a  tub  of  warm  water,  while  those  air-puffs 
are  rubbed  out  through  the  skin.  This  shop  is  locked, 
curtains  up.  I  am  alone.  This  is  a  heavy  and  power- 
ful horse.  There  is  no  other  way  to  get  him  out  of  this 
fix  except  to  compel  him  to  stand  on  one  foot,  which 
must  be  done  by  raising  the  others.  It  is  "  business  "  to 
hold  up  the  hind  parts  of  that  heavy  horse,  he  standing 
up  on  his  toe,  and  keep  him  in  the  tub  and  rub  his  legs 
at  the  same  time,  and  change  around  and  keep  it  up 
for  three  or  four  hours.  Walk  him  around  the  shop. 
Soak  and  rub.  Hold  him  up  while  doing  it;  get  him 
nearly  down  on  his  heels  ;  air-puffs  are  nearly  all  gone. 
Open  the  doors ;  out  we  go.  Eun  with  him  awhile ; 
tie  to  tree,  take  up  one  leg,  rub  the  other,  the  horse 
straddling  and  throwing  two-thirds  of  his  weight  on 
me  all  of  the  time.  Change  legs  five  or  six  times, 
then  run  with  him  again  ten  minutes  ;  tie  to  the  fence 
the  same.  Up  with  a  leg  by  main  strength  ;  rub  and 
change.  Keep  this  up.  Eun  and  tie  for  two  hours  or 
more.  Then  run  with  him  to  the  shop;  get  both  of 
his  feet  in  the  tub  of  warm  water.  He  stands  down 
on  his  heels  flat  rest.  The  air-puffs  are  nearly  all  gone, 
and  some  hair  is  rubbed  off  m  spots.  That  will  soon 
come  in  again.  His  trouble  is  over  for  a  while.  I  had 
no  time  during  the  operation  to  listen  to  bawlers.  I 
could  hear  them  any  time,  and  not  go  out  of  my  way. 
It  affects  the  air-puffed  horses  on  their  hind  legs  all 
in  this  way,  and  they  have  got  to  go  through  this  or 
no  cure.  It  is  business,  but  it  brings  them  out  all 
right  in  a  short  time  if  it  is  done  as  it  should  be. 
Mike  is  chansred,  or  the  cause  is  removed.     He  should 


108  THE  horse's  rescue. 

have  a  chance  to  recover  from  the  effect  of  this  great 
change.  • 

His  hind  feet  were  not  so  hard,  and  it  did  not  take 
so  long  to  soften  his  feet.  After  this  hard  day's  work 
for  me  and  Mike,  I  got  him  in  his  stable  and  made  him 
as  comfortable  as  I  could  by  packing  his  feet  with 
clay  (other  packing  would  do  as  well,  the  object  being 
to  keep  his  feet  moist).  Thus  I  left  him  and  went  to 
my  barn,  where  I  had  business  "for  more  than  half  of 
the  night  exercising,  caring  for,  and  watching  the  effect 
of  changes  on  horses,  and  the  time  it  took  to  recover" 
from  the  change.  These  horses  were  different  from 
Mike,  which  I  will  explain  b}''  and  by.  It  is  morning. 
I  must  go  and  see  Mike.  I  was  at  the  barn  before 
there  was  much  stir  in  town.  I  found  Mike  in  a  bad 
fix.  The  hostler  was  there.  How  is  this?  Some  one 
has  been  driving  this  horse,  and  has  nearly  driven  him 
off'  his  legs.  He  stood  up  on  his  toes,  and  could 
hardly  stand  on  his  hind  leg?.  Tho  hostler  told  me 
Mike  was  out  all  night.  Of  course  there  was  some 
loud  bugling.  It  could  be  heard  ten  rods  at  least. 
This  hard  work  is  to  be  done  all  over  again  to  get  him 
down  on  his  heels.  It  will  take  me  all  dav,  and  it 
did;  besides,  it  has  caused  Mike  unnecessary  suffer- 
ing. I  pulled  him  out  of  tlie  barn.  I  had  got  in  the 
middle  of  the  street.  Mike  was  hobbling  upon  h's 
toes.  Mr.  Bennett,  hearing  the  uproar,  came  to  the 
front  door  of  the  barn. 

"Doan,  what  is  the  matter  with  that  horse?" 

"  It  is  the  change." 

"  I  don't  like  that  kind  of  charge." 

'•I  will  have  him  all  riglit   by  night.     If  you  want 


THE   horse's  rescue.  109 

one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  come  and  get  it,  and  let 
me  have  the  horse'' 

He  walked  away.  The  same  process — soak,  ruh^ 
run,  and  tie  to  go  through  with  again,  all  caused  by 
their  not  doing  as  they  agreed.  How  do  you  like 
reader,  the  business  I  am  at  work  at?  Let  us  stick. 
Never  give  up  the  ship.  I  got  Mike  in  the  barn  at 
dark  that  night.  He  was  down  flat  rest  on  his  heels, 
and  his  ankles  were  weak.  I  bandaged  his  ankles, 
packed  his  feet,  and  left  him  again,  and  told  them  he 
must  have  rest  or  they  would  have  him  down.  The 
next  day  T  soaked  his  forward  feet  and  spread  them  a 
little.  They  had  grown  some.  It  had  been  nearly 
three  weeks,  the  foot  flaring  from  top  of  wall  down  to 
tread.  If  it  was  not  ironed.  I  would  be  wider  and 
not  wear  off,  which  it  could  not  for  this  reason  :  the 
wear  was  on  the  shoe  and  not  the  hoof,  and  it  was 
ironed  so  it  could  not  expand.  What  would  be  the 
result  if  I  did  not  spread  his  feet  a  little?  The  sole 
would  raise,  he  would  be  thrown  oS.  his  base  again, 
according  to  the  degree  of  change  of  which  I  have 
already  written.  He  has  six  nails  on  each  side  of 
these  shoes,  put  there  on  purpose  for  this  operation. 
Let  us  draw  out  two  of  these  heel  nails  on  both  sides. 
We  have  spread  his  feet  and  given  them  liberty.  They 
will  spread  with  his  weight  if  they  are  kept  soft.  Do 
not  get  discouraged.  With  all  of  the  hard  work  we 
have  done,  he  is  not  right  yet.  His  toes  on  his  for- 
ward f^et  have  more  lever.  They  have  grown  since 
his  shoes  were  set  three  weeks  ago.  Spreading  his 
feet  at  the  heel  will  help  him  some,  but  that  does  not 
shorten   the  lever  by  any  means.     To  have  him  right 


110  THE    house's    rescue. 

he  should  have  had  all  his  feet  fixed  at  the  same  time. 
I  cannot  do  away  with  that  lever.  If  I  could  it  would 
be  one  of  the  biggest  things  man  ever  invented.  I 
can  see  no  way  except  to  kill  the  horse  ;  then  it  would 
cease  to  grow.  Putting  on  trash  to  stop  a  foot  from 
growing  too  fast,  or  to  make  it  grow  faster  and  iron- 
ing, causing  great  fever  and  heat,  and  preventing  na- 
ture from  having  its  course  at  the  same  time,  is  rather 
antagonistic  and  claiming  a  little  too  much  power. 
Horses  must,  if  ironed,  travel  on  unnatural  feet  all  of 
the  time,  with  the  lever  at  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
length.  Before  I  get  through  this  woik  I  shall  tip 
over  more  than  you  dream  of  with  that  lever  power. 
I  started  to  go  to  the  end  of  the  whole  business.  We 
will  put  Mike  in  his  stable  again,  pack  his  feet,  all 
four.  The  ignorant  never  have  seen  anything 
wrong  about  the  horse's  hind  feet,  which  should 
have  equal  care.  His  hind  feet  and  legs  are  necessary 
to  him.  He  sends  himself  off  with  his  hind  legs,  and 
draws  more  with  them  if  he  is  as  the  creator  made 
him — which  a  very  few  are  that  have  been  shod — he 
does  not  stay  so  but  a  short  time.  We  will  have  to 
let  Mike  sail  on  the  road  three  or  four  weeks  and 
watch  him.  Take  care  of  his  feet;  no  one  else  will. 
Neither  will  they  })ay  for  doing  it.  They  had  rather 
sit  with  their  feet  on  the  back  of  chair  tops  and  smoke. 
Doan  will  shoe,  balance  all  tlje  cripples,  and  cure 
them  and  keep  them  cured.  He  is  willing  to  do  it, 
and  we  are  willing  he  should.  We  can  drive  the 
horses  off  their  legs,  and  then  go  to  him.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  us  to  be  broken  of  our  rest,  neither  is  it 
any  use  for  us  to  know  how  he  does  it. 


THE     horse's    rescue.  Ill 

Eeader,  this  has  been  going  on  in  this  way  for  many 
years.  I  will  say  right  here  that  I  never  received  but 
five  dollars  in  forty-one  years  aside  from  the  price  of 
shoeing,  except  what  I  made  by  buying  and  trading 
for  these  cripples,  curing  them  and  letting  them  go 
again  That  five  dollars  was  paid  to  me  by  Mr. 
Hatch,  of  Auburn  city.  I  gave  half  of  it  to  my 
brother,  J.  J.  Doan,  who  did  nearly  all  of  the  work. 
Mr.  Hatch  gave  me  all  I  charged,  and  would  have 
given  me  more,  but  that  was  not  my  object.  I  wanted 
to  introduce  this  great  discovery,  and  relieve  the  suf- 
fering horse ;  and  that  is  what  I  am  writing  this  ■'^■ork 
for.  T  have  put  thousands  of  dollars  in  the  pockets  of 
others,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  if  they  will  read 
this  work,  and  study  the  horse.  It  is  no  trouble  to 
look  at  a  horse.  They  are  before  you  nearly  all  the 
time.  Let  us  look  at  a  pair  that  are  passing  now. 
These  horses  are  in  Horseheads,  the  place  I  am  at  work 
m  now,  and  shall  be  for  some  time  to  come  vet. 

This  pair  of  horses  are  about  six  j^ears  old — a 
matched  pair  of  browns.  They  are  valued  at  one 
thousand  dollars.  I  have  looked  them  over  in  the 
stable  manv  times.  Let  us  take  a  side-view  of  them 
in  harness.  In  order  to  see  these  horses  as  you  should, 
you  must  see  two  pairs  at  the  same  time;  and  3'et 
there  is  but  one..  You  should  see  this  pair  first,  as  the 
creator  made  them,  before  man  tried  to  improve  on 
them.  They  stand  with  their  forward  legs  back  of 
straight;  heads  up,  neck  arched,  head  in,  with  mouth 
closed;  weight  equalized  on  center  of  all  four  feet; 
balanced  in  center;  no  strain  unnatui'al  in  any  way; 
their   head   pointing  on  a  straight  line,  and  feet  all 


112  THE    horse's    rescue. 

pointing  on  a  straiglit  line,  providing  tliej  have  had 
their  libertv  to  exercise  and  wear  off  their  feet  as  fast 
as  they  grew,  and  been  trimmed  and  cared  for.  They 
stand  the  perfect  natural  horses,  as  their  creator  made 
and  intended  them  to  be.  Now  we  will  look  at  them 
and  see  man's  improvements,  trying  to  make  horses 
over,  or,  in  other  words,  excel  1  the  creator. 

I  had  looked  at  this  Pair  of  hors*^s  almost  dailv  for 
over  a  j'ear,  passing  and  repassing.  They  are  fitting 
these  horses  for  market  for  coach  horses  ;  it  will  not  do 
to  say  anything  to  them;  neither  it  will  it  do  to  point 
out  any  defect  in  them,  or  tell  them  how  to  improve 
their  movement ;  it  would  set  them  bawlinsr.  Read- 
ers,  let  me  tell  you  their  suffering  condition,  then  you 
can  step  out  and  see  thousands  all  around  you  ;  and, 
travel  where  you  will,  you  cannot  miss  seeing  them 
if  you  have  eyes  and  use  them.  I  will  try  to  describe 
the  suffering  condition  these  horses  ai'e  thrown  in. 
The  causes  are  many,  and  hard  to  describe.  As  this 
work  is  tracing  cause  to  effect  and  effect  to  cause,  we 
will  begin  at  the  first  cause.  That  is,  the  fallible  be- 
ing, man,  is  ignorant  of  natural  laws  and  the  suffering 
produced  by  abusing  them.  These  laws  are  the  crea- 
tor, and  I  recognize  no  other.  The  horse  is  the  inno- 
cent and  helpless  sufferer,  and  is  part  of  the  creator's 
works.  Through  ignorance  he  has  been  made  a  great 
sufferer — the  greatest  of  all  the  creator's  works;  and  I 
send  this  work  on  its  mission  for  the  purpose  of  res- 
cuing them  from  their  deplorable  condition  :  and  I  ap- 
peal to  the  supreme  court  of  heaven  to  back  me  up. 
Man's  courts  would  be  of  but  little  use  to  me;  no  jus- 
tice can  be  had  in  them.     Let  us  return  to  this  pair 


THE    horse's    rescue.  113 

of  horses.  They  are  all  thrown  off  their  base  in  many 
ways,  which  I  have  explained.  Like  causes  produce 
like  effect.  This  is  a  pair  of  matched  horses.  This  is 
to  show  you  how  well  they  work  and  come  together, 
and  shows  their  action  and  movement  together,  and 
"what  a  hard  time  a  man  has  that  has  no  knowledge 
of  the  horse,  and  the  cause  and  effect  he  is  obliged  to 
contend  with,  and  does  not  know  it.  The  nigh  horse 
is  badly  off  his  base  on  his  forward  legs,  and  a  greater 
degree  on  his  hind  legs.  Two-thirds  of  his  weight 
is  on  his  hind  legs.  His  feet  are  all  different  lengihs, 
and  all  run  over ;  some  traveling  the  same  line,  some 
not,  and  none  on  straight  line.  He  wrings  his  feet  at 
every  step,  and  ambles  on  his  hind  feet.  This  move- 
ment is  caused  by  contraction,  leverage,  and  run-over 
feet,  produced  by  ironing  and  not  balancing  him  and 
equalizing  his  weight;  and  that  is  not  all.  Contrac- 
tion has  lengthened  the  lever  on  his  toe  to  a  far  greater 
length  than  you  are  aware  of.  You  cannot  see  it 
beyond  the  toe  of  his  foot,  and  yet  it  is.  This  horse 
is  nearl}''  always  lagging  behind  his  mate,  unless  he  is 
constantly  urged  up  with  the  whip.  Let  us  look  over 
his  mate ;  he  is  the  same,  only  not  quite  so  bad  off. 
On  his  hind  legs  the  lever  is  not  quite  as  long ;  he 
single  foots.  They  are  both  thrown  back  off  their 
base  badly,  and  are  obliged  to  stay  so,  for  all  the 
great  wisdom  their  owners  have- contained  in  their 
heads.  Let  us  look  at  the  gaggers  and  see  if  they  help 
the  action  and  movement  of  these  poor  tortured  crea- 
tures. Readers,  remember  these  horses  are  drawn 
down  by  contraction  and  leverage,  braced  out  and 
fastened  there. 


114  THE  horse's    rescue. 

Now  they  are  trying  to  make  them  carry  high 
heads  by  over-draws  and  checks.  What  is  the  effect 
of  this?  It  adds  greatly  to  the  suffering  of  these 
horses.  It  throws  them  off  their  base  further  than 
they  would  otherwise  be.  Their  necks  sink  down, 
their  noses  stick  straight  out,  and  they  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  camels;  the  lines  are  so  arranged  they 
turn  their  heads  out  nearly  one-quarter  around,  when 
thev  should  point  on  a  straight  line  when  the  horses 
are  traveling  on  a  straiglit  line.  And  that  is  not  all. 
The}^  have  been  kept  in  the  stable  not  verj''  light. 
They  are  brought  out  in  the  sunlight  gagged  up,  and 
obliged  to  have  the  bunlight  pouring  in  their  eyes, 
while  the  driver  must  have  a  shade  over  his  tender 
eyes  and  head.  This  is  a  rather  hard  picture,  but 
these  are  facts. 

Let  us  look  at  the  driver ;  he  sits  on  the  front  edaQ 
of  the  seat;  he  appears  as  though  he  was  sitting  on  a 
jug.  He  wants  to  go  faster,  his  hands  extending  out 
toward  the  horse's  loin.  With  each  hand  he  has  the 
appearance  of  pushing  on  the  lines.  He  does  not  like 
the  movements  of  his  horses,  but  is  ignorant  of  the 
cause.  It  does  not  take  a  very  clear  observer  of 
human  nature  to  see  the  unrest  and  worry  he  is 
obliged  to  endure,  caused  by  the  awkward  movements 
of  his  horses.  Let  us  watch  him  circle  them.  He  will 
be  obliged  to  make  a  large  circle,  or  they  will  be  likely 
to  fall.  See,  he  is  turning  them  to  the  left.  The 
near  horse's  head  is  drawn  hy  the  lines  the  course  Ije 
wants  him  to  take.  His  mate's  head  is  drawn  the  op- 
posite. Reader,  is  it  not  curious  that  these  horses  can- 
not move  together  ?     Let  us  look  and  see  how  they 


THE     horse's     rescue.  115 

handle  their  feet.  They  have  but  little  knee  action. 
They  drag  one  foot  over  the  other.  If  they  are  har- 
ried, they  will  be  likely  to  tread  on  their  own  feet,  and 
on  each  other's.  The  near  horse  sags  back  on  making 
this  circle ;  the  off  horse  swings  his  hind  parts  out 
against  the  trace. 

There  are  all  degrees  of  this  awkwardness,  accord- 
to  the  change.  This  pair  are  not  very  bad  yet.  They 
were  sold,  I  heard,  for  one  thousand  dollars,  to  a  gen- 
tleman in  Bath,  Steuben  bounty,  K  Y.,  though  the 
story  IS  not  to  be  relied  on ;  but  it  can  be  done  any 
day,  and  is  every  day,  all  over  the  world.  Horses  are 
sold  and  bought,  and  large  prices  paid  for  them,  in  all 
stages  of  change  from  natural,  and  ofttimes  they  are 
in  the  last  stages.  It  does  not  seem  to  affect  the  sale 
or  price,  for  this  reason  :  the  people  are  ignorant  of 
the  horse,  and  the  position  he  is  in.  I  could  have 
balanced  them  better  than  they  were  if  I  could  have 
shod  them  in  my  shop,  by  dressing  their  feet,,  making 
the  levers  on  the  toes  of  equal  length,  shoeing  them 
all  around  at  the  same  time,  having  the  hind  feet  in 
pairs,  and  the  fore  feet  the  same,  and  work  to  one- 
sixteenth  of  an  inch  both  on  shoe  and  foot,  eye  always 
on  run-over  feet.  I  could  keep  them  from  showing 
their  defects  by  limping,  for  they  limped  equally  on 
all  their  feet.  I  have  balanced  thousands  of  these 
poor  horses  between  contraction  and  leverage  and  run- 
over  feet  in  forty-one  years,  and  while  I  am  experi- 
menting nights  I  am  doing  all  I  can  at  this  hard  busi- 
ness daily  to  get  money  to  keep  my  horses,  which  I 
have  no  use  for  only  to  see  if  I  can  find  out  what  ails 
all  of  these  poor  cripples.     My  close  and  careful  work 


116  THE    HOBSES    RESCUE, 

on  the  horse's  foot  gave  me  a  good  run  of  business; 
more  than  I  wanted.  Many  thought  I  could  cure 
their  horses  by  shoeing,  for  this  reason — they  did  not 
limp.  That  was  all  they  knew,  or  could  be  taught 
about  it.  They  would  come  pouring  in  from  a  dis- 
tance, sometimes  thirty  miles,  and  ofttimes  more. 
Some  I  could  help,  some  were  out  of  my  reach,  and 
I  could  not  help  them  by  shoeing;  but  I  could  get 
them  out  of  their  trouble,  if  I  could  have  them  in  my 
care  a  short  time. 

"  What  will  you  charge  me,"  they  would  ask,  "  to 
cure  m}'  horse?" 

"  Well,  it  is  worth  from  ten  to  fifty  dollars  to  do  it. 
It  depends  something  on  what  ails  the  horse,  and  what 
condition  he  is  in  when  I  commence  on  him."  About 
nine  out  of  ten  would  rail  out  on  me  in  this  way: 

"  When  you  get  ten  dollars  out  of  me  for  shoeing  a 
horse  you  can  consider  yourself  damned  smart;"  or, 
"  When  you  fool  me  you  will  have  to  be  smarter  than 
T  take  you  to  be." 

That  kind  of  talk  I  have  heard  daily,  and  many 
times  a  day,  in  the  past  ten  years.  Before  I  get 
throuo-h  this  work  I  will  show  you  these  smart  men 
could  be  fooled  badly.  I  experimented  on  the  horses 
a  little,  just  to  see  if  I  could  fool  them.  I  did  not 
take  any  of  their  money. 

Mike  has  come  around  again  to  be  shod.  He  has 
done  some  traveling.  His  shoes  are  nearly  all  worn 
off  his  feet  These  shoes  were  flat  all  around,  and 
were  nearly  worn  in  two  at  the  toe.  Their  wearing 
off  saved  Mike's  cords  some.  His  forward  shoes  has 
been  on  seven  weeks,  his  hind  shoes  four  weeks.     He 


THE    horse's    rescue.  117 

looks  fine  ;  his  hair  begins  to  look  bright  and  glossy, 
and  yet  he  has  been  traveling  out  of  harmony  some, 
for  this  i-eason,  that  the  lever  on  his  fore  feet  has  been 
tlie  longest.  If  it  had  been  the  longest  on  h:s  hind 
feet  the  effect  would  have  been  more  serious,  which  I 
well  knew  wiien  I  set  him  sailing.  Mike  always  had 
a  good  friend  peeking  around,  watching  and  caring 
for  his  feet,  to  see  they  did  net  dry  up  hard.  Mike, 
we  will  put  the  polish  on  you  this  time. 

Header,  I  have  laid  down  the  principles  for  expand- 
ing the  foot  by  shoeing  a  little  on  the  Kentucky 
hunter  mare.  That  principle  is  right,  and  all  there  is, 
except  to  spread  it  out  at  once.  We  will  make  the 
lever  on  all  of  Mike's  feet  equal  length.  The  colt's 
f  >ot  he  must  have.  All  is  nearl}"  in  harmonj'  of  ac- 
tion ;  structure  is  nearlj'  right.  We  will  shorten  the 
lever  a  little  shorter  than  natural  ;  his  feet  are  grow- 
ins:  all  the  time.  It  will  wear  the  toe  of  shoes  off* 
some  if  we  do  not  put  on  corks,  which  we  will  not  do. 
In  this  wa}^  we  can  fix  him  so  he  can  go  six  weeks 
very  well,  with  good  care  taken  of  his  feet.  Then  he 
will  want  to  be  changed  back  again. 

Reader,  how  wn)ukl  y^n  like  to  follow  this  business 
for  forty-one  3^ ears  ?  I  will  tell  3-()U  about  the  pay 
before  I  get  through  this  sail.  Perhaps  ^^ou  will  like 
it,  better.  That  is  what  all  seem  to  be  after.  I  have 
an  iron-gra}^  in  my  barn.  I  always,  or  nearly  always, 
had  from  one  to  four,  seldom  more  than  four,  at  one 
time.  This  grriy  is  five  years  old.  It  was  stiff  v  hen 
I  took  it  to  cure.  It  is  not  mine.  I  have  forgotten 
the  owner's  name.  It  is  no  loss  to  me,  hov/evei'."  I 
took  his  horse  to  cure.     The  bargain  was  this  way  :  I 


118  THE     horse's    rescue. 

was  to  cure  li is  horse  for  ten  dollars.  He  v/as  to  pay 
me  for  the  feed  while  I  had  the  liorse  in  mv  care,  or 
furnish  the  feed,  and  he  chose  to  furnish  the  feed.  He 
owned  three  farms.  He  told  me  if  he  continued  to 
have  as  good  lack  as  he  had  had  he  would  soon  own 
more.  He  came  with  the  feed.  It  was  a  small  jag  of 
wet  wheat  straw  taken  out  of  a  stack  half  rotten — not 
fit  to  bed  a  horse  for  me.  I  said  nothing.  This  horse 
was  thin  in  flesh.  I  fed  her  well  with  good  feed  of 
my  own.  She  was  so  badly  thrown  off  her  base  that 
she  could  hardlv  move  or  turn  around  on  her  forward 
feet.  She  was  quite  natural  on  her  hind  feet.  I  told 
him  it  was  something  of  a  task  to  get  her  back  on  her 
base;  it  would  take  me  about  two  weeks  before  he 
could  take  her  home.  This  is  in  the  winter.  I  shod 
horses  in  my  shop  days,  and  had  these  cripples  in  the 
shop,  soaking  and  preparing  them  for  spreading  their 
feet,  Kights  I  was  in  the  barn  or  exercising  these 
horses.  While  changing  them  it  affects  them.  It 
would  set  them  howling  worse  to  see  these  horses 
while  going  through  this  change.  It  would  put  me  in 
danger  of  being  mobbed  ;  if  they  did  not  do  that  it 
would  bother  mc  some  about  my  work.  I  could  do 
better  when  they  were  all  asleep.  I  had  all  I  could 
handle  without  being  bothered.  Night  after  night  you 
see  a  man  in  a  barn  with  an  overcoat  on — cold  winter 
nights — heating  water  in  the  house,  washing  and  rub- 
bing these  horses' legs ;  sometimes  in  the  street  run- 
ning with  them ;  sometimes  driving  ;  sometimes  riding 
them.  When  you  commence  to  change  them  tl^ere  is 
no  stopping.  Then  you  must  go  through.  I  had  no 
help;  I  had  to  do  it  all.     I  stood  alone,  iiearly  all  on 


THE    UOKSE'S    rescue.  119 

my  track.     During  this  horse  fight  a  Cornell  student 
ari'ived  in  town,  a  graduate  under  Prof.  Law.    He  put 
up  at  Bennett's  hotel.     He  had  a  large  stock  of  knives 
and  instruments.     They  were  polished  nicely.     Whnt 
use  lie  made  of  them  I  know  not.     I  have  no  use  for 
such.     He  had  a  lot  of  bones  of  horses'  legs  that  had 
been  spavined  and  ringboned.     He  told  me  they  were 
all  curable  but  one  ;  the  pastern  joint  where  the  ring- 
bone is  located  had  grown   solid  together.     That,  he 
said,  was  incurable.     I  told  him  cases  w-here  the  bone 
was  so  badly  affected  as  they  were  it  was  out  of  the 
power  for  any  man  to  cure,  for  this  reason  :  he  could 
not  remove  the  cause.     The  bone  is  fall  of  lioles;  the 
enamel  is  all  off;  the  bone  is  rasfsfed  and  rouirh.    You 
cannot  make  it  natural  and  smooth  again.     Of  course 
t],atset  him  to  howling.     He  was  an  effect  doctor.     I 
a  ked   liim   if  he  ever  saw  a  horse's  foot  expand  or 
spread  at  the  heels  at  once  three-quarters  of  an  iiu-h. 
No;  it  could  not  be  done.     They  say  it  would  npo  1 
the  horse.     You  would  be  arrested  for  cruelty  to'ani- 
mals.     '*  Look  here^  professor^  are  you  personally  ac- 
quainted  with   that  personage,  'They  Say?'     I   have 
heard  so  much  about  him  I  would  like  te  see  him  and 
have   an   introduction.     He  seems  to  be  very    wise. 
Nearly  all  appeal  to  him  and  quote  him.     If  I  could 
get  acquainted  with  him   I  might  get  him  to  help  me 
cure  horses.     I  am  spreading  horses^  feet  and  curing 
them  every  day,  and  nights  too,  and  no  one  is  smart 
enough  to  tell  how  it  is  done.     I  can't  see  any  danger 
from  They  Say.    This  new-born  babe  on  the  horse  had 
just  started  out  after  graduating  at   Cornell   Univers- 
ity.    He  will  learn,  like  all  others,  by  experience.    It 


120  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

takes   time   and  practical  work,  like  all  other  great 
things. 

Reader,  let  us  go  on  with  our  work.    This  iron-gray 
had  been  shod  before  she  had  grown  up  to  her  natural 
size.      Her  feet   were  not  their  full  size,   when  first 
ironed,  and  were  held  by  the   shoe  from  growing  nat- 
ural ;  the   sole'  raised.     It  served  her  as  it  does  all 
others ;    threw  her  back  off  her  base,  and  held  her 
there,  and  she  partly  grew  up  in  this  condition.     It  is 
a  hard  job  to  get  such  cases  back  on  their  base.     In 
about  ten  days  I  did  accomplish  this  hard  task.     She 
had  good  knee  action.     During  these  ten  days  I  had 
some  cold  rides  in  the  night  when  all  were  asleep.    Her 
shoulders  did  not  come  back  as  easy  as  some.     They 
must  be  worked  back  by  drawing  loads  after  you  re- 
move the  cause,  and  you  must  keep  it  removed ;  that 
is,  keep  the  structure  of  the   foot  natural,  and  watch 
that  lever  at  the  toe.     This  mare's  head  is  up;  she 
moves  very  fine ;  not  many  move  better.     I  will  drive 
through  the  town  .ind  see  wliat  the  eflect  will  be  tak- 
ing this  sail.     They  all  seem  to  look  at  me.     I  do  not. 
see  one  looking  at  this  mare.     The  fact  is  they  do  not 
know  her.     The  horse  led  through  the  town  ten  days 
ago  was  foundered  ;  that  is  incurable.     It  is  the  same 
color.     No  argument  could  be  produced  or  used  to 
convince  them  it  was  the  same  horse.     The  good  care 
and  good  feed  with  it  had  changed  her  wonderful]3^ 
I  drove  past  my  old  friend  the  blacksmith  and  shoei-. 
The  better  success  I  had  the  more  his  wrath  increased. 
There  were  several  men  with  him  standing  in  his  shop 
[loor.     He  commenced  as  I  was  passing  to  rail  at  me 
so  I  could  hear  it.     I  drove  on.     The  ihouqht  came 


THE   HORSE  S   RESCUE.  121 

to  me,  "This  is  rather  hard  after  ten  nights  with  but 
little  sleep,  and  days  the  same."  I  had  others  1  was 
working  on  in  different  stages  of  change  toward  nat- 
iiral  to  care  for,  and  they  were  not  all  in  my  barn.  It 
was  the  last  straw  that  broke  the  camel's  back.  This 
inan  had  dogged  me  nearly  one  year,  and  had  no  cause 
for  doing  so,  I  had  had  as  much  patience  as  any  man 
in  that  town,  but  it  was  exhausted.  At  last  I  must 
shake  that  man  off,  I  have  carried  him  long  enough. 
He  is  no  good  to  me  in  this  work,  and  a  damage  to 
himself.  It  will  be  better  for  us  both.  So  I  turned 
and  drove  back  and  pulled  up  in  front  of  his  shop. 
The  parties  were  all  thera 

Header,  I  assure  you  this  was  what  I  did  not  like  to 
do.  I  had  tried  to  be  friendlv  with  Mr.  Brees,  and  was 
then,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  look  at  it  in  that  lisfht. 
I  did  not  want  to  shoe  horses.  I  wanted  to  cure  stiff 
and  crippled  ones  if  I  could  get  enough  to  live  out  of 
it.  I  could  not  cure  all  of  thtsse  horses  shoeing;  that 
was  what  made  the  most  of  them  stiff,  with  the  bad 
treatment  they  are  are  obliged  to  endure.  I  asked 
Mr.  Brees  if  he  had  plenty  of  business. 

"Yes;  what  of  itT 

"  I  think  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  attend  to  it 
then.  Mine  is  no  part  of  yours.  If  you  meddle  any 
more  with  my  business  I  will  tell  the  people  you  are 
slaughtering  more  horses  than  any  man  in  the  Che- 
mung valley.  They  will  believe  me  as  quick  as  they 
v/ill  you.  I  want  you  tD  shoe.  The  more  you  shoe 
the  better  my  business  will  be.  You  slaughter  and  I 
will  cure  and  keep  still.    We  will  build  up  a  big  trade. 


122  THE  hokse's  rescue. 

Trj  that.     Do  not  set  any  more  troublesome  fellows 
on  me."     That  stopped  that  i-acket. 

But  let   us  dispose   of  this  iron-gray.     I  kept  this 
gray  two  weeks.     The   owner   took  her  home.     Slie 
had  her  spreaders  on.     I  told  him  he  must  put  her  in 
the  team  and  work  her  ;  it  would  help  her  shoulders 
by  drawing  to  come  back  to  their  place.     She  was 
nearly  all  right.     I  saw  him  drawing  coal  with  her. 
She  was  traveling  fine,  and  on  her  base  ;  good  action. 
I  charged  him  to  not  take  her  shoes  off.     I  would  do 
that  when  it  was  time.     I  told  him  to  drive  around  so 
I  could  see  her  when   he  came   to  town.     He  lived 
about  three  miles  away.     He  did  not  pay  me  for  keep- 
inc^,  shoeincr,  or  curinsr  when  he  took  her  away,  but  I 
was  safe  enough.    He  owned  three  farms.     I  was  very 
busy.      I  thought  he  v^ould  come   around.     I  had  no 
time  to  run  after  him.     He  was  to  come  to  me.     Time 
passed,  and  I  did  not  see  or  hear  from  him.     He  was 
almost  a  stranger  to  me  when  I  took  his  horse  to  cure. 
In  about  six   months  this  man  drove   up  to  my  shop 
with  this  same  mare,  the  stiffest  I  ever  saw.     If  one 
can  be   much  stiSFer  than   another,  she  had   the  extra 
touch.     She  was  thrown  back  further  off  her  base  than 
she  was  when  I  first  commenced  on  her.     I  was  sur- 
prised to  see  him  and  her  too.     I  asked  him  what  he 
had  been  doing.     He  told   me  Dave  ToMmsend  told 
him   to  pull   those  spreading  shoes  off.     They    were 
pulled  off  in  his  shop  soon  after  she  went  out  of  my 
control.     This    was    the    reason    I    did    not    see    him 
around.     Mr.   Townsend  ran    a  shop   in   Ilorseheads. 
He  tried  hard  to  make  the  people  believe  I  was  crazy. 
I  was  very  much  in  his  way.    He  worked  a  very  small 


THE   horse's  rescue.  123 

field  on  the  horse.  He  might  run  a  peanut  stand.  He 
did  for  a  short  time.  The  poor  horses  would  not  have 
suffered  quite  as  much  if  he  had  kept  at  that  business. 
He  caused  this  poor  horse  suffering  that  I  cannot  de- 
scribe, and  this  man  came  back  to  me  to  have  me  get 
her  out  of  it  again.  He  said  he  would  try  me  once 
more.  If  I  did  not  do  it  this  time  he  would  give  me 
up. 

"  How  did  she  act  after  you  pulled  her  shoes  off?" 

"I  thought  she  would  die.  I  had  to  stand  her  in 
cow  manure  all  of  the  time." 

*'  It  would  have  been  better  for  her  if  she  had  died, 
then  she  would  not  suffer.  She  is  not  much  use  to 
any  one  as  she  is.  Dave  Townsend  can  get  her  out  all 
straight.     He  does  it  with  angle-worm  oil." 

I  did  not  touch  her,  neither  did  I  get  anything  for 
what  I  had  done.  This  man  I  will  have  to  let  go  free. 
I  think  it  is  wrong  to  abuse  a  perfect  fool. 

Keader,  we  have  another  case  to  dispose  of.  Here 
stands  Mike  at  the  same  post  where  he  stood  nine 
weeks  previous.  Let  us  look  him  over.  ISTo  man 
could  tell  by  looking  at  him  if  he  had  not  known  him 
and  seen  this  change  take  place  by  degrees.  He  has 
been  almost  daily  on  the  road  and  improved  all  the 
time.  His  feed,  when  I  commenced,  was  eighteen 
quarts  of  oats  per  day.  It  was  reduced  to  twelve  in  a 
short  time,  for  this  reason  :  Mr.  Bennett  had  a  partner 
in  his  business.  He  started  to  go  to  Elniira,  his  wife 
with  him.  He  went  part  way  and  came  back,  drove 
up  to  the  barn,  ordered  the  feed  taken  off  of  Mike, 
ordered  another  horse.  He  told  them  in  the  hotel,  ''I 
was  not  afraid  of  him  ;  my  wife  was." 


1-4  THE    horse's    rescue. 

I  was  always  peeking  around.      In  the  evening  I 
walked  into  the  hotel.     There  were  several  around  the 
bar.     Mr.  Bennett  had  a  number  of  new  bits.     They 
were  counselinir  about  the  best   bits   to  hold   Mike  to 
keep  him  from  running  awaj.     I  told  them  Mike  was 
coming   to  life  ;  he   wasn't  running  av^'ny.     I  would 
drive  him  on  a  slack  rein,  and  there  would  be  no  dan- 
ger in  doing  so.     There  was  no  reply.     I  walked  a.way 
and  let  them  fight.     They  will  be  scared  worse  when 
I  fjet  this  horse  balanced  in  the  center.     At  that  time 
1  had  not  fixed   his  hind   feet.     Let  us  look  at  Mike 
after   he    is   balanced   standing  at  this  post.     I  shall 
never  forget  that  horse.     While  looking  him  over  in 
all  points  I  pronounced  him  the  best  horse  I  ever  saw 
at  that  time.     I  have  not  seen  his  mate  since.     There 
is  a  great  change  in  him.     I  stood  up  by  the  side  of 
him.     I  am  five  feet  seven  inches   talJ.     I  put  up  my 
hand,  and  could  just  reach  to  the  top  of  his  ears.     He 
stood  natural  and  easy  ;  his  hair  was  sleek  and  glossy, 
and  as  handsome  dapple-brown  as  I  ever  saw.    "Mike,    ^ 
you  are  as  near  as  the  creator  made  you  as  I  can  make 
you ;  and  yet  with  all  the  hard  work  I  have  done  on 
vou  nights  and  days,  your  owner  is  as  ignorant  as  ever 
he  was.     He  does  not  seem  to  realize   this  wonderful 
change  in  you.     He  cannot  see  you  gnawing  your  feet, 
sufferii!g  night  and  day;  shrunken  and  shriveled  up; 
all  air-puffs  ;  stiff  and  sore  ;  hair  dead,  and  you  nearly 
so,  but  he  tells  the  people  there  was  nothing  the  mat- 
ter with  vou,  only  a  little  road  sore.     I  wanted  to  cure 
you  for  an  advertisement,  Mike.     I  am  well  paid  now 
if  you  would  only  stay  so;  but  I  well  know  you  will 
not;  that  lever  will  grow,  contraction  will   take  place, 


THE   horse's   rescue.  125 

and  you  have  the  ignorance  of  jour  owner  and  many 
others  to  contend  with.  I  w^ill  care  for  you  ail  I  can 
when  I  can  net  a  chance.  No  medicine  has  been  used 
on  you  internally  ;  no  butclierin^.  Tlie  cause  of  all 
your  trouble  hns  b?en  removed  by  expanding  your 
feet  and  dressing  them,  and  making  them  as  your  cre- 
ator had  made  tliem  before  tliey  were  slaughtered  by 
ironing  them.  Hi  rum  McConnell,  the  veterinarian  of 
this  town,  tells  me  that  that  butcher  I  drove  out  of 
this  town  cured  you.  I  suppose  he  had  reference  to 
those  shoes  he  ordered  Mr.  Brees  to  put  on,  that 
caused  you  to  gnaw  your  feet.  Now  I  would  like  to 
know,  in  the  name  of  reason  and  common  sense,  how 
MeConnell  came  in  possession  of  so  much  wisdom 
about  this  complicated  matter."  He  was  an  agent  for 
the  railroad  company,  and  was  obliged  to  be  at  the  de- 
pot all  or  nearly  all  of  his  tin.-^.  He  kept  his  medi- 
cine to  cure  horses  there.  I  cured  without  it.  He  did 
not  cure  these  stiff  horses  with  all  of  his  trash. 

The  fact  is,  some  wanted  to  drive  me  out.  I  had  good 
friends  before  I  left  that  town.  Their  craft  was  in 
danger.  I  think  I  will  drjp  in  there  soon  again,  and 
try  them  another  battle  on  the  horse ;  I  have  not  quit 
yet.  I  must  clear  away  some  of  this  rubbish  before  I 
can  go  on  with  my  work. 

Mr.  Bennett  and  I  had  a  few  words  about  shoeing  a 
horse  ;  I  shod  his  horses.  He  had.  traded  and  got  one. 
It  was  a  strange  horse  to  me.  I  shod  it,  and  it  inter- 
fered afterward.  He  wanted  me  to  try  him  ngain.  I 
did,  and  charged  him  for  setting  them  over.  He  found 
fault.     I  told  him  I  was  tired  working  for  him  for  no 


126  *    THE  horse's  rescue. 

pay  and  no  credit.     If  he  had  given  me  credit  for 
curino-  Mike  I  would  not  have  said  a  word. 

"I  paid  you  for  shoeing." 

"Yes." 

"Then  you  have  no  honor." 

So  much  for  that  hard  job.     Let  us  go  on   with 
this  horse  fight.     It  is  paying  business. 

There  was  another  racket  around  Bennett's  hotel. 
Mike  ran  away.  Mr.  Bennett  was  in  the  pump  busi- 
ness. A  party  of  three  went  out  in  the  country  to  set 
a  pump.  Some  pumps  made  up  the  load.  Mike  was 
the  propelling  power.  Jack  Eacker  was  the  agent  and 
boss.  lie  was  a  reporter  for  the  papers  in  this  town, 
and  was  a  clever  fellow.  He  was  quite  a  bugler — a 
good  match  for  me  on  that.  I  was  sorry  to  see  Jack 
hurt,  for  he  did  get  hurt;  his  face  was  badl}^  bruised, 
and  shoulder  injured.  There  was  no  use  of  my  telh 
ing  them  anything  before  or  after  the  shipwreck-  I 
was  in  the  last  stages  of  lunac}^  They  knew  it  all, 
and  I  let  them  have  their  own  way^  and  kept  on  a 
straight  line.  Mike  spread  them  all  out  along  the 
road,  pumps  and  tools,  and  made  a  bad  shipwreck. 

While  all  this  raeket  is  going  on  I  must  go  and  see 
Mike.  I  am  quite  a  hand  to  talk  with  horses.  I  en- 
joy talking  with  horses  better  than  I  do   with  some 

men. 

"Mike,  how  did  you  come  to  shipwreck  those  fel- 
lows so  ?" 
*       "  I  did  not  have  room   enough  for  my  hind  legs  to 
have  full  swing." 

"  I  see  the  skin  and  hair  are  all  off  your  cords,  above 
your  hocks ;  that  must  have  hurt  you  ?" 


THE   horse's  rescue.  127 

"It  did;  the  cross-bar  of  the  fills  was  chawing  my 
legs  at  every  step.  You  see,  since  you  made  me  as 
my  creator  made  me,  I  need  at  least  eighteen  inches 
more  room  to  clear  my  hind  legs.  I  can  make  long 
strides  now,  and  I  like  to  do  it;  it  scares  them  some, 
but  if  they  will  give  me  room  I  will  scare  them  worse, 
if  my  feet  are' kept  as  they  are  now." 

The  fact  is  just  as  it  is  stated  above,  and  that  was 
the  cause  of  the  wreck.  As  this  work  is  called  "  The 
Horse's  Eescue,  and  Cause  and  Effect  Book,"  this 
comes  in  all  right.  Such  ignorance  adds  to  the  suffer- 
ing of  the  horse. 

Tiie  old,  nearly  worn  out  spreading  shoes  that  I 
pulled  off  of  Mike  were  ordered  to  be  carried  to  the 
hotel,  where  they  were  looked  at  and  commented  on. 
'•These  are  the  shoes,"  they  say,  "that  cared  Mike." 
These  shoes  had  no  curing  properties  in  them  ;  it  was 
the  principles  I  worked  on — removing  the  cause  ;  na- 
ture did  the  curing. 

Mike  was  a  natural  trotter,  and  if  he  had  been  in 
goo  J  hands  would  have  been  hard  to  beat.  He  was 
ambitious,  and  had  great  powers  of  endurance;  for 
strength  and  muscle  I  never  saw  his  equal.  There  is 
no  use  setting  any  price  on  him.  The  price  of  horses 
is  o-overned  and  reo:ulated  in  manv  ways — sometimes 
by  fear,  by  fancy,  by  the  size  of  a  man's  pile,  and  how 
he  obtained  it,  and  the  owner's  circ^umstances  and  sur- 
roundings. This  horse  Mike  was  soon  missing  from 
his  stall.  I  missed  him,  for  I  had  visited  Mike's  stall 
daily  for  nearly  three  months,  though  I  did  not  always 
find  him  there.  Where  he  went  I  know  not.  I  never 
saw  him  after  the  wreck  but  once,  that  I  can  remem- 


128  THE   horse's   rescue. 

her.  Fear  was  the  cause  of  Mike's  changing  hands. 
He  might  get  stiff  and  lame  again;  he  might  ship- 
wreck some  one  again.  And  iofnorance  was  the  cause 
of  all. 

There  is  not  much  use  trying  to  teach  a  man  when 
he  thinks  he  has  all  of  the  knowledge.  Such  a  man's 
atttention  can  be  attracted  with  children's  toys  quite 
easv.  I  have  seen  children  wearin2^  men's  clothes.  It 
is  no  indication  of  wisdom.  A  man's  grandfather  may 
give  him  t])iee  thousand  dollai^s,  but  that  does  not  add 
to  his  knowledge.  It  does  have  an  eSect  sometimes 
in  this  wa}^ ;  it  will  cause  a  man  of  small  intellect  to 
wear  a  pair  of  boots  three  inches  longer  than  his  feet, 
soles  about  one  inch  thick,  causing  him  to  toe  out  and 
interfere,  knocking  his  heels  at  every  step ;  his  head 
thrown  back  of  a  perpendicular  line^  with  a  segar  in 
his  mouth  lacking  only  a  few  degrees  of  sticking 
straight  up;  hands  in  both  pockets  nearly  to  elbow. 
He  can  bend  a  little  every  five  minutes  to  look  at  a 
fob  chain,  but  he  could  not  bend  enougli  to  see  the 
lever  on  the  toe  of  a  horse's  foot.  It  might  strain  him 
across  the  loin^  being  thrown  back  off  his  base  in  a 
small  degree,  on  the  same  principle  that  his  horses 
are. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  think  a  man's  foot  is  any  com- 
parison to  a  horse's  foot.  I  speak  of  this  to  show  the 
difference.  Ignorant  people  are  always  making  these 
comparisons.  Mankind  nearly  always  take  their  boots 
or  shoes  off  nights,  and  sometimes  days  if  they  hurt 
their  feet.  I  have  worn  mine  a  f^ood  man  v  nic^hts,  and 
clothes  too,  while  working  on  these  suffering  hoi^ses' 
feet.     The  horse  is  obliged  to  wear  his  shoes  dav  and 


THE   horse's   rescue.  129 

niglit  if  tbey  do  Imrt.     For  many  reasons  tlie  owner 
does  not  want  to  pay  for  movirig   the  wboes,  and  be 
does  not  feel  tbe  pain  the  poor  horse  endures.     I  wish 
tbey  all  could  for  twenty-four  hours  ;  that  would  be 
long  enough  ;  you  would  hear  the  loudest  bawling  you 
ever  beard.    Man's  feet  do  notgr^win  length  ;  bis  toe- 
nails grow;  if  be  does  not  cut  them   off  be  will  be 
likely  to  have  bis  attention  called  to  the  end  of  his 
toes  if  be  wears  boots ;  and   this  is   not  all;  his  foot 
bas  joints,  and  bis  foot  has  no  shell ;  it  turns  up  at  the 
toes  when  be  walks,  if  tbe  soles  are  not  too  thick  and 
are  made  of  leather,  if  they  are  three  inches  longer 
than  tbe  foot;  but  it  is  rather  torturesome  to  break 
such  boots  in  in  any  weather.     When  tbey  do  not  get 
soaked  with  water  it  hurts  at  tbe  top  of  tbe  instep — 
where  tbe  ringbone  is  located  on  tbe  horse.     They  will 
slip  up  and  down  at  tbe  heel,  which  wears  tbe  skin  off 
tbe  heels,  but  that  will  grow  on  again  if  you  can  stand 
the  torture  a  few  hours  each  day.     It  will  be  neces- 
sary for  you  to  have  rest  from  tliis  suffering  quite 
often.     If  you  can  stand  it  until  these  boots  assume 
the  shape  of  sleigh-runnoi p,    it  will  be  more  easy  to 
raise  over  that  lever.     I  notice  the}^  do  not  all  accom- 
plish this  difficult  task,  and   tbey  toe  out,  which  runs 
over  their  boot?.     Then  tbey  interfere  and  are  con- 
stantly wiping    the    mud  oft*  of  their  boots  on  their 
trousers  at  tbe  ankles  at  every  step.     But  this  is  no 
comparison  to  the  horses'  feet.     Take  all  into  consid- 
eration.    The  shell  of  tbe  horse's  foot  does  not  bend 
as  tbe  lever  lengthens,  if  it  is  not  ironed,  without  pro- 
ducing injury  in  some  way.     If  it  is  allowed  to  get  too 
long  it  may  cause  it  to  sink  dovv'n   in  front,  or  it  may 


130  THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

turn  tip  a  little.  If  it  does  it  must  split  at  the  toe  or 
break  nown.  I  have  seen  colts'  feet  split  from  point  of 
toe  to  top  of  wall  on  both  forward  feet  from  this  cause 
that  never  had  a  shoe  on,  and  have  drawn  them  to- 
gether with  nails.  That  is  the  best  way  I  ever  tried. 
It  stops  the  cracks  from  springing  apart  at  the  top.  If 
you  can  do  that  on  any  plan  the  new  hoof  will  grow 
out  sound.  If  you  cannot  do  that,  it  will  crack  as  fast 
as  it  grows.  There  is  no  bending  that  lever  on  the 
horse's  foot,  no  matter  how  long  it  is  made  by  ironing, 
or  allowed  to  grow,  without  producing  injury  in  many 
ways.  It  has  joints  and  bones,  but  they  are  clothed 
with  a  shell,  and  when  out  of  harmony  of  action  the 
result  is  fearful. 

The  horse's  foot  cannot  be  compared  to  man's,  and 
yet  this  is  not  all.  He  has  four  feet  and  legs  to  be  bal- 
anced on,  which  I  have  already  remarked. 

Men  ask  sometimes  if  horses  take  cold  from  pulling 
off  their  shoes!  There  is  as  much  reason  in  asking^ 
this  question  as  there  would  be  in  asking  if  there  was 
danger  of  horses  taking  cold  sleeping  in  the  barn-yard 
with  the  gate  open.  It  all  goes  to  show  the  ignoi'ance 
of  men  concerning  the  horse.  Their  feet  do  get  cold, 
and  the  horses  get  cold  all  over  and  shiver  and  suffer; 
they  are  as  sensitive  to  pain  as  mankind;  and  irons 
nailed  on  their  feet,  with  a  row  of  nails  driven  inside 
of  the  shell  half  way  to  the  hair,  does  make  their  feet 
cold  in  frosty  weather.  The  frost  will  follow  the  nails, 
which  are  very  close  to  the  membrane.  Nearly  all 
shoers  fit  the  shoe  so  narrow  the  nails  start  inside  of 
the  shell.  The  feet  being  bound  up,  and  the  struct- 
ure all  changed  from   natural,  causes  heat.     That  will 


THE    horse's    rescue.  131 

warm  the  foot  some,  but  does  not  relieve  the  suffer- 


ing. 


Here  came  Mr.  Bennett  again  with  another  stiff  and 
lame  horse — a  light-limbed  young  horse. 

"Doan,  what  is  the  matter  with  this  "horse?" 

"  I  should  think  you  might  see." 

"He  wants  his  feet  soaked,  don't  he?  How  far 
have  you  driven  him?" 

"About  eight  miles.  It  is  all  'sposh.'  I  should 
think  if  that  was  all  he  needed  he  would  be  cured 


now." 


"  His  feet  must  be  well  soaked.  The  best  way  to 
soak  horses'  feet  is  to  drive  them  in  mud  and  Water. 
Your  horse's  feet  are  badly  contracted,  and  that  is  not 
all." 

I  walked  away.  This  horse  was  badly  contracted, 
and  he  had  two  sets  of  feet  on  him,  a  very  long  lever, 
and  a  heavy,  bungling  set  of  shoes,  entirely  too  large 
in  every  way,  if  his  feet  had  been  properly  dressed.  I 
did  not  touch  that  horse.  It  looked  to  me  as  though 
Mr.  Bennett  had  gone  to  buying  stiff  horses  for  me  to 
cure  for  nothing.  That  would  have  been  all  riglit  if 
I  had  chosen  to  do  so.  It  is  good  business  to  have 
others  work  for  you  for  no  pay,  and  grow  poor  all  of 
the  time  yourself.  Some  get  very  wealthy  that  way, 
and  sometimes  you  can  hear  them  brag  about  their 
wealth.  Some  folks  may  think  it  is  the  part  of  a  man. 
It  may  be  in  some  cases  ;  in  this  case  it  was  a  total 
failure.  I  will  have  to  let  this  case  go  in  with  some 
other  rubbish  I  have  just  cleared  away,  and  pass  on. 

It  is  uphill  business  here  all  alone  ;  no  backing  out. 
When  I  first  came  in  this  town  I  was  verv  cautious. 


132  THE   hoese's  rescue. 

My  experience  had  taught  me  it  was  rather  dangerous 
to  tell  a  man  his  horse  was  stiff.  It  would  hurt  the 
sale  of  him;  and  yet  they  were  nearly  all  of  them  stiff 
that  had  been  shod — lame  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
and  they  were  in  a  worse  condition  in  the  Chemung 
valley  than  in  anyplace  that  lever  had  been  in  at  that 
time;  and  I  heard  as  much  horse  talk  as  in  any  place. 
They  all  claimed  much  knowledge  of  ihat  noble  ani- 
mal. My  !  is  it  not  queer?  It  is  so  all  over.  I  have 
taken  the  pains  to  demonstrate  that. 

Soon  after  I  came  in  this  town  I  was  looking  over 
the  stables.  Tliere  I  can  be  found  as  quick  as  in  any 
place.  You  can  see  me  in  a  horse  doctor's  stable,  or 
veterinarian,  as  they  are  sometimes  called.  .  His  name 
was  Hiram  McConnell.  It  was  Sundaj^  Hiram  had 
a  little  time  that  day  He  was  caring  for  a  horse 
while  his  feet  were  soaking.  He  seemed  like  a  clever 
fellow.  I  talked  with  him  some  about  his  horse,  which 
was  a  trotter.  He  was  called  Billy  Crawford.  This 
horse,  I  heard,  cost  Hiram  eight  hundred  dollars.  That 
may  be  the  truth,  or  it  may  not;  folks  can  lie.  That 
matters  not,  for  it  will  not  cure  these  horees.  I  could 
see  Hiram  had  some  unrest  about  his  horse.  I  ven- 
tured a  few  remarks.  I  told  him  he  could  not  cure 
him  soaking  his  feet ;  he  was  not  working  on  the  right 
plan. 

Hiram,  being  rather  a  quiet  fellow,  took  it  all  quietly 
and  kept  on  at  his  work.  I  looked  over  his  stables 
(he  had  the  best  in  town)  and  walked  away.  This 
horse  had  contracted  feet.  He  had  shoes  on.  His 
feet  needed  cutting  down  at  least  one-third.  It  would 
have  helped  very  much.     At  the  time  I  first  looked  at; 


THE   horse's   rescue.  133 

Billy  he  could  have  been  cured  very  easily.  I  tried  to 
get  this  horse.  Some  weeks  after  I  liad  a  little  talk 
with  Hiram.  He  said  he  would  give  one  hundred  dol- 
lars to  have  him  cured.  1  told  him  I  would  cure  him 
for  that.  I  thought  at  that  time  I  would  be  able  to 
get  him  soon.  I  was  very  anxious.  He  was  going  on 
from  bad  to  worse,  which  I  well  knew.  I  visited  him 
often;  it  worried  me  verv  much.  I  did  all  that  was  in 
'my  power  to  get  this  horse  to  cure.  I  finally  gave 
it  up.  I  watched  Billy  the  same  as  I  had  others  I 
was  at  work  on — one  belonging  to  a  lady.  She  was 
an  agent  for  sewing  machines,  and  traveled  on  the 
road.  A  Mr.  Wright  took  care  of  her  horse,  which 
was  a  six-year-old  roan  pony.  He  had  got  to 
be  such  a  cripple  on  his  forward  feet  he  could  hardly 
hobble.  With  all  the  wisdom  Horseheads  contained, 
they  could  not  tell  what  ailed  the  horse,  neither  could 
they  get  him  out  of  his  trouble;  but  they  could  call 
me  a  brag  and  a  damned  old  fool.  It  does  not  take  a 
very  smart  man  to  do  that,  and  I  got  lots  of  that  kind 
of  music.  They  could  do  that  easier  than  they  could 
cure  horses.  All  that  ailed  this  horse  was  that  his  feet 
were  all  cut  oS. ;  that  is,  the  shell  was  nearly  all  cut 
off.  His  feet  were  not  of  the  natural  size.  He  was 
on  his  base.  His  feet  were  not  contracted.  He  was 
ironed  down  solid,  and  was  very  sore,  caused  by  this 
botch-work.  I  soon  got  him  out  of  his  trouble  by 
D-ivin"^  his  feet  room  and  packing  them.  In  a  short 
time  he  liad  his  natund  feet,  and  sailed  all  i-ight.  I 
told  Mr,  Wright  he  must  keep  his  feet  sofr.  I  did  not 
mean  soak  his  feet  all  of  the  time  when  he  was  in  the 
stable.     All    at    once    this  horse    became    dead    lame 


134  THE   horse's  rescue. 

about  three  miles  away,  and  could  hardly  be  got 
liome.  Wright  brought  him  to  the  shop  to  find  out 
the  cause. 

"Mr.  Wright,  what  have  j^ou  been  doing?  You 
have  soaked  this  horvse's  feet  too  much." 

"  It  was  some  trouble  to  soak  this  horse's  feet.  I 
have  got  a  ground  floor  in  my  barn  I  dug  a  hole  in 
the  ground  and  filled  it  wnth  water,  and  tied  him  so 
he  would  be  obliged  to  stand  in  it." 

This  horse  had  flat  feet.  After  his  feet  got  to  be 
their  natural  size  the  fever  was  gone,  and  they  needed 
but  very  little  soaking.  He  had  corks  on  his  shoes, 
and  the  frog:  did  not  touch  the  erround.  The  weight 
is  in  the  center  of  the  foot.  Driving  on  dry  roads  his 
weight  drove  the  sole  down  ;  or,  in  other  words,  he 
went  down  through  the  cup  or  top  of  the  wall.  His  foot 
was  rounding  on  the  bottom,  which  affected  the  coffin 
joint  badly  and  threw  all  out  of  liarmony  of  action. 
If  it  had  been  muddv  it  would  not  have  been  as 
likely  to  go  down.  The  frog  would  have  had  a  rest. 
This  often  happens  on  all  flat  feet  where  the  frog  has 
no  rest.  It  is  easy  enough  to  get  it  back,  dishing  the 
shoe,  as  ignorant  people  do,  to  get  it  off  the  sole, 
that  only  makes  bad  worse.  Most  people,  in  cases  like 
this,  will  run  from  one  shop  to  another  until  their 
horse  is  nearly  ruined.  To  pull  o£f  the  shoes  is  all  that 
is  necessary.  The  weight  of  the  horse  on  the  frog 
will  push  it  back  to  its  place.  I  told  Mr.  Wright  not 
to  soak  the  horse's  feet.  ''  Put  him  to  night  on  the 
floor.  In  the  morning  he  will  be  all  right.  He  will 
lie  down;  his  feet  will  dry;  his  weight  will  be  off 
t])em,  and  as  they  dry  the  sole  will  rise  up." 


THE    horse's   rescue.  1S6 

In  the  morning  Mr  Wright  said  tlie  horse  was  as 
well  as  ever  it  was.  Five  years  afterward  I  saw  this 
v^ame  liorse  and  the  lady  that  owned  it  driving  it  forty 
miles  from  Horseheads,  where  I  was  at  w^ork.  I  talked 
with  her  about  her  horse.  She  said  he  had  been  all 
right  ever  since  I  got  him  out  of  his  trouble,  and  yet 
if  I  tell  any  one  what  I  can  do,  and  do  it,  they  do  not 
all  see  me  do  it,  and  there  is  always  plenty  to  fight 
and  bleat,  calling  you  a  brag.  It  is  almost  as  dan- 
gerous to  find  out  anything  new  as  it  was  two  thou- 
sand years  ago. 

We  will  go  on  with  this  liorse  fight  in  this  town. 
They  begin  to  worry  sortie  about  my  spending  my 
money,  and  yet  not  a  man  has  paid  me  a  cent  for  cur- 
ing his  horses.  I  shall  have  to  stop  spending  my 
money  soon,  curing  their  horses  for  nothing,  or  some 
of  them  will  hang  themselves.  Then  I  shall  be  blamed 
for  that.  They  do  worry  so  there  is  danger.  We  will 
try  it  a  little  longer,  and  run  the  risk. 

Here  comes  Jack  Bennett  with  the  American  Star 
stallion.  Jack  is  a  wide-awake  follow  ;  got  lots  of 
cnsh  and  horses.  He  iikes  horses,  and  has  lots  of  time 
to  play  with  them.  His  star  horse  is  a  natural  trotter, 
and  is  the  nearest  natural  of  any  horse  I  have  seen  in 
or  around  this  town  yet,  or  was  before  he  was  slaugh- 
tered in  his  feet.  Jack  sent  his  horse  to  school  at 
Corning  to  teach  him  to  trot.  He  went  to  Corning  to 
to  see  how  Star  was  learning.  Hfe  soon  saw  that  some- 
thing was  wrong.  He  could  not  trot  as  well  as  he 
could  when  he  left  home  ;  and  that  was  not  all.  Tiiere 
was  danger  of  his  being  spoilt.  Star  had  white  legs 
nearly  to  his  gambrels;  the  blood  was  running  down 


136  THE  horse's  rescue. 

on  the  inside  of  his  legs,  and  there  was  danger  of 
cutting  his  legs  off.     Jack  brought  his  horse  home. 

•'  I  can  beat  those  fellows  myself,"  said  he.  "  This 
is  the  last  time  I  send  Star  to  school.  Doan,  what  is 
the  matter  with  this  horse?  He  never  cut  his  legs  be- 
fore in  his  life.  There  must  be  some  cause.  He  is 
not  right  in  some  way.  I  can  tell  when  my  horse  is 
rio-ht  by  driving  him  five  rods.  I  want  you  to  fix 
him." 

''All  right." 

When  Jack  was  around  talking  horse  I  had  to  stop. 
I  could  not  get  a  word  in.  He  could  talk  louder  and 
faster  than  I  about  what  was  the  cause  of  this  horse's 
trouble.  They  had  shod  him  in  this  way  on  his  for- 
ward feet  with  fiat  shoes.  The  shape  was  well  enough. 
The  shoes  were  concave,  but  there  was  too  much  flat 
rest  on  the  shoes.  The  surface  for  the  shell  to  rest 
on  was  five-eighths  of  an  inch.  The  shell  is  three- 
eif^hths  in  this  case.  The  way  the  foot  was  dressed; 
one-quarter  inch  rest  was  off  the  shell  and  on  the  sensi- 
tive part  of  his  foot.  It  made  his  feet  sore.  They 
were  ironed  down  solid  and  dead  ;  not  a  particle  of 
give.  The  concussion  soon  caused  soreness.  Let  us 
fix  his  hind  feet.  The  cause  of  his  legs  being  cut 
was  they  had  been  shod  so  they  botli  toed  in;  the 
\veight  was  unequal  on  his  heels.  They  had  run  over  a 
little — enough  to  cause  him  to  hit  his  legs  on  the  out- 
side heels  of  his  forward  shoes.  He  did  not  spread 
his  hind  legs  enough  to  pass  clear.  He  was  out  of 
harmony  of  action  all  around,  and  that  was  the  cause 
of  r.ll.     After  I  had  shod  him,  Jack  said  : 


THE   horse's   rescue.  137 

'*I  will  try  birn.  I  can  tell  in  driving'  him  ten  rods 
if  he  sails  all  right." 

Jack  came  back. 

'' Doan.  he  is  all  risi-ht." 

This  great  science  of  working  on  the  horse  is  called 
bragging  by  men  that  have  no  knowledge  of  the 
horse. 

To-daj  while  stopping  to  rest  a  little  I  was  called  a 
brag.  "They  will  not  place  much  confidence  in 
your  book,  you  are  such  a  brag.''  -He  quoted  that  old 
fool  ''They,''  as  all  ignorant  people  do.  A  man  might 
think,  to  hear  such  men  talk,  that  ihey  or  they  say  was 
the  highest  authority  that  could  be  appealed  to — equal 
to  the  creator.  The  man  that  perfected  this  work 
never  paid  any  attention  to  what  They  Say  says;  if  he 
had,  it  would  never  have  been  perfected.  I  would 
like  to  have  some  of  these  wonderfully  smart  teachers 
tell  me  how  to  introduce  any  new  discovery  without 
writing  or  talking  about  it.  You  cannot  put  any  ma- 
chine in  practical  operation  without  talk  to  introduce 
it;  and  of  all  the  machines  lever  saw,  the  horse  is  the 
greatest.  When  he  is  as  the  creator  made  him,  he  is 
the  most  complicated.  Men  l^ave  tried  to  improve  this 
machine,  and  have  spoilt  nearly  all  they  have  worked 
on,  sooner  or  later,  by  ironing  their  feet.  No  proof  is 
needed  ;  neither  will  it  admit  of  denial,  for  it  stands 
in  bold  relief  all  over  the  land,  g'o  where  you  will. 

Let  us  go  to  the  fair  at  Elmira  and  see  the  show  of 
horses  while  there.  It  will  be  best  to  keep  quiet. 
Some  big  guns  on  the  horse  will  be  there,  and  we  can 
learn  more  to  get  in  some  quiet  place  and  look  on.  It 
will  be  no  use  to  talk  horse  here ;  you  will  set  them 


138  tb:e   horse's  kefcue. 

on  you,  and  that  will  botber  you  in  your  lesson,  Tlie 
onl}^  way  for  the  inexperienced  to  learn  these  grent 
truths  is  to  watch  these  horses  when  they  aie  in  mo- 
tion. They  cannot  tell  by  seeing  them  standi fjg.  The 
natural  horse  will  stand  sometimes,  if  he  is  all  right, 
with  his  leirs  sprawled  in  many  ways,  and  yet  be  all 
right,  or  nearly  so;  and  he  can  be  made  by  dressing 
his  feet  and  shoeing,  lo  all  appearance,  while  standing, 
to  look  and  seem  natui'al  to  some.  When  put  in  mo- 
tion, he  will  show  his  deformed  and  suffering  condition 
in  man}''  ways.  This  panorama  of  hoi'ses  that  is  pass- 
ingf  is  hard  to  describe.  They  have  all  been  brought 
here  to  be  looked  at,  and  to  look  at  them  is  what  I 
have  come  for.  The  more  the  horse  is  deformed  and 
changed  from  natural,  the  worse  he  is  used.  If  he  is 
stiff  and  sore,  he  must  be  driven  around  the  track  and 
scored,  to  warm  him  up  preparator}^  to  trotting.  He 
must  be  jerked,  whipped,  and  sawed,  swung  nearly  off 
his  feet,  being  all  out  of  harmony  of  action,  which 
causes  him  to  cut  his  heels,  and  pound  his  own  legs  to 
pieces.  These  horses  are  nearly  all  thrown  back  off 
their  base,  or  tied  up  i.n  some  way  or  degree  on  their 
feet.  They  do  the  best  they  can.  See  how  that  lever 
they  are  obliged  to  rise  over  throws  them  up.  They  go 
into  the  air,  tangled  all  up;  break,  trot  forward,  run 
or  trot  behind,  some  on  one  foot,  some  on  both  ;  some 
lame  on  all  four  feet-  and  yet  it  is  not  seen  bv  these 
great  horsemen,  '^^hicli  I  shall  show  if  they  are  honest 
by  the  premiums  when  they  are  declared  off.  Some 
horses  burst  their  feet  in  man}^  places  at  top  of  wall, 
caused  by  contracted  feet.  Then  they  pull  off  and 
quit.     Such  horses  cannot  trot  fast.     They  foot  short 


THE   horse's   rescue.  139 

and  rapidly.  They  are  all  tied  up  on  their  feet  and 
out  of  harmony.  Their  feet  pain  them  night  and  day  ; 
they  cannot  rest  day  or  night.  The  driver  does  not 
feel  the  pain  these  poor  horses  are  obliged  to  endure, 
but  that  does  not  prove  this  suffering  does  not  exist, 
neither  does  it  remove  the  cause,  which  cause  is  igno- 
rance. They  are  all  trying  to  make  fast  horses,  and 
this  process  ruins  nearl}^  all  and  makes  them  slov/er. 
The  next  object  is  money,  and  ten  lose  that  while  one 
makes ;  the  country  is  no  better  off  for  all  this  whole- 
sale slaughter  of  these  horses. 

If  the  people  understood  the  horse,  and  would 
take  good  care  of  him  and  keep  him  natural,  or 
nearly  so,  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  ride  after  him. 
The  horse  likes  to  sail  when  he  is  all  in  harmony  of 
action.  I  like  to  drive  a  good,  sound  horse ;  and  if 
you  will  take  good  care  of  him,  he  will  sail  you  as  far 
in  a  day  as  you  want  to  ride.  In  this  race  after  money 
the  horse  is  the  greatest  loser  of  all.  He  loses  his 
sleep,  caused  by  pain ;  he  loses  the  use  of  his  feet  and 
legs;  his  life  is  shortened,  and  he  finally  loses  that  be- 
fore he  is  in  his  prime. 

I  cannot  go  on  and  describe  all  of  these  cripples. 
I  have  written  enough  to  show  you  where  to  study  the 
horse.  Every  foot  on  one  horse  may  vary  in  degrees 
of  change,  and  it  throws  him  out  of  balance  on  each 
foot  and  leg  according  to  the  degree  of  change. 

Billy  Crawford  is  here,  and  is  showing  himself;  he 
was  quite  a  trotter  once.  He  is  young  yet,  but  is 
lame  on  one  forward  foot,  that  is,  he  is  limping.  He 
seems  stiff  all  over.  He  ambles  and  straddles.  The 
lever  is  too  long.     He  cannot  get  there  ;  he  is  a  long 


140  THE  horse's  rescue. 

way  behind.  It  is  the  best  he  can  do.  If  he  was 
untied  he  would  show  them  some  good  stepping.  It 
is  no  use  trying  as  I  am  now.  Tliese  are  facts,  and 
can  be  seen  at  any  fair  in  the  United  States. 

There  is  a  cause  for  this  condition  of  the  horse,  and 
it  cannot  be  removed  by  bawling  at  me.  You  will 
not  learn  these  great  truths  that  way,  nor  will  you  any 
other  great  science.  The  horse  is  a  machine,  and  so  is 
man.  The  horse  is  a  horizontal  machine,  and  more 
complicated  than  man;  for  this  reason:  he  has  four 
legs  and  four  feet  to  balance  his  weight  on,  and  he 
must  be  balanced  in  the  center  at  the  same  time,  and 
the  structure  of  all  four  feet  must  all  be  in  harmony 
of  action  when  he  is  put  in  motion,  or  you  will  see  a 
bad  movement,  and  the  motion  will  cause  heat  and 
soreness. 

You  let  him  stand  still.  When  in  this  condition  he 
suffers  greatly.  The  soreness  will  disappear  some 
when  he  is  still.  As  soon  as  you  put  him  in  motion 
it  increases.  The  more  you  run  him  the  more  he  is 
obliged  to  suffer,  while  in  this  condition.  And  that  is 
not  all ;  he  is  divided  against  himself  in  many  ways, 
and  on  no  two  feet  alike.  There  are  hardly  two 
horses  to  be  found  that  are  out  of  harmony  alike,  and 
and  in  the  same  degree  of  change. 

A  man  (that  is,  he  thinks  he  is  a  man  ;  he  is  large 
enough  in  bulk),  knowing  I  was  writing  this  book, 
told  me  he  would  give  a  dollar  to  read  it. 

''  But  I  don't  care  anything  about  your  book,''  said 
he. 

If  it  was  a  child  five  years  old  talking  like  that,  we 
ought  to,  and  would,  make  some  allowance,  but  when 


THE    horse's    rescue.  141 

men  thirty  or  forty  years  old  talk  like  that,' there  is 
not  much  hope  of  their  improvement.  As  though  a 
man  could  read  any  book  without  first  caring  for  it. 
That  is  what  causes  all  improvements  and  progres- 
sion. 

This  man  told  me,  a  few  days  previous  to  this  con- 
versation, that  he  had  set  seventy  horse  shoes  in  a  day 
in  winter,  and  the  first  horse  did  not  get  in  the  shop 
until  ten  o'clock,  and  it  was  dark  at  about  four 
o'clock.  If  he  went  without  his  dinner  it  would  give 
him  six  hours  to  do  this  work.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
he  did  the  work  ;  it  is  too  often  done.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  this  boasting,  owners  of  horses,  when  you  hear 
a  man  telling  about  setting  seventy  shoes  in  six  hours, 
if  you  get  in  his  shop  you  will  be  likely  to  take  your 
horse  home  with  two  sets  of  feet  on  him,  and  in  a 
worse  condition,  or  soon  to  be,  tha-n  if  he  had  not 
touched  him. 

I  must  brag  a  little.  lean  outbrag  them,  all;  that 
is  what  ails  them.  If  they  could  beat  me  bragging 
they  would  be  all  on  an  equal  footing;  but  they  can't 
— I  never  met  a  man  that  could.  But  no  man  ever 
heard  me  brag  about  the  number  of  shoes  I  set  in 
one  day,  for  I  knew  that  the  people  were  not  all  fools, 
and  that  they  could  and  do  see  something. 

There  is  no  use  talking;  it  will  only  end  in  confu- 
sion. I  have  no  recollection  of  setting  over  forty  shoes 
in  a  day,  and  that  was  spun  out  to  twelve  hours;  but 
it  was  fairly  done — nothing  extra.  The  pay  was 
small,  and  I  was  obliged  to  do  more  than  I  ought,  in 
order  to  keep  the  business  up.  I  have  spent  one 
whole  day — and  faithfully  to — shoeing  one  horse  that 


142  THE  HORSE  S    RESCUK 

was  going  to  make  a  trot,  to  please  the  owner,  and 
charged  no  extra  pay ;  but  I  followed  the  horse  to 
watch  his  movement  and  action;  and  many  are  the 
horses  I  have  shod  in  forty-one  years,  and  followed  in 
this  way. 

This  show  of  horses  is  not  all  over  here  yet  at  this 
fair.  I  am  here  following  Jack  Bennett's  star  stallion. 
He  will  not  show  himself  until  these  amblers  and 
shufflers  and  single-footers  get  through.  Here  comes 
one  down  the  track.  My  golly !  How  he  does  amble 
and  single-foot. 

This  is  Hiram  McConnell's  champion  stallion.  He 
is  not  old.  He  was  once  called  a  trotter.  He  belongs 
to  a  horse  doctor,  and  his  home  is  in  the  same  stable 
with  Billy  Crawford.  He  is  a  long  distance  behind  in 
this  great  horse  show.  This  horse  I  have  looked  over 
manv  times  before  he  came  to  this  horse  show  of 
speed.  Tiiere  is  a  cause  for  this  slow,  stiff,  straddling, 
single-footing,  ambling  motion,  and  I  Veil  know  what 
it  is;  but  there  is  no  use  talking  when  you 'are  all 
alone  in  the  fight  for  the  horse.  Their  time  is  more 
taken  up  in  trying  to  make  themselves  and  others 
believe  I  am  crazy.  This-was  red-hot  in  this  town. 
The  more  big  things  I  did  on  the  horse,  the  crazier  I 
got.     My,  my  ! 

This  stallion  was  changed  from  natural  in  many 
ways,  and  in  many  degrees  of  change,  and  every  foot 
was  changed  different  from  the  others,  and  differ- 
ent degrees  of  change ;  and  he  was  so  sore  he  could 
hardly  straddle  around  the  track.  Sometimes,  when 
looking  at  the  deplorable  scene.  I  feel  bad,  and  think 
there  is  no  use.     They  brag  and  call  these  horses  all 


THE  horse's  rescue.  143 

sound,  or  nearly  so;  there  is  nothing  the  matter  with 
tbem. 

Reader,  I  have  gone  off  by  myself  and  rolled  and 
laughed  about  these  horse  shows  at  many  fairs,  and 
you  can  do  the  same  when  you  study  the  horse.  Af- 
ter you  read  this  work  you  can  see  it  as  quick  as  I 
do,  if  you  will  give  your  attention  to  it.  If  you  do 
not  you  must  suffer  loss,  and  your  horse  will  suffer. 
No  man  on  this  earth,  that  has  got  any  fine  feelings, 
would  allow  his  horse  to  suffer  if  he  could  help  him 
out  of  it,  and  knew  how  to  do  it.  You  must  learn  as 
I  did.  It  need  not  cost  vou  fortv-one  lone?  years  of 
experimenting,  and  the  hardest  practical  mental  and 
physical  labor  that  a  man  ever  did,  and  a  power  of 
opposition.  My  God  I  it  makes  the  tears  come  in  my 
eyes  and  my  head  ache,  and  back,  shoulders,  and  hips 
too,  to  write  about  it.  You  need  not  go  through  all  of 
this.  Tears  are  no  proof  that  a  man  is  a  baby.  Be- 
fore I  get  through  this  work  you  can  tell  better.  I 
have  to  laugh  sometimes  at  these  horse  shows.  I  can- 
not help  it.  I  would  not  if  it  made  the  horse  suffer. 
I  do  not  laugh  at  the  movement  of  the  horses.  It 
does  me  good  to  laugh.  It  is  no  use  to  tell  you  what 
I  laugh  about.  I  suppose  these  great  horsemen  have 
seen  me  off  by  myself  laughing,  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  they  called  me  crazy.  What  did  I  care  what  they 
called  me,  as  I  well  knew  thev  did  not  have  any  knowl- 
edge  of  the  deformed  condition  of  these  poor  horses. 
They  were  nearly  all  that  had  been  shod  in  this  con- 
dition. In  some  degree  you  can  see  this  any  time 
where  these  poor  horses  are  put  in  motion. 

Here  comes  Jack  Bennett  with  a  double  team.    This 


144  THE    horse's    rescue. 

is  the  first  time  I  have  seen  Jack  to-da3\  He  has  got 
his  sorrel  trotter  and  American  Star  stallion  together. 
Star  takes  the  outside  track  ;  the  mare  is  a  good  trot- 
ter ,  see  them  sail.  The  mare  is  running  nearly  her 
best,  and  Star  trots.  Not  a  break,  no  whipping,  no 
jerking  around  ;  thej  go  several  times.  Jack  swinging 
his  hat  over  his  head.  Star  is  the  most  natural  horse 
I  have  seen  in  the  Chemung  valley,  and  Jack  knows 
how  to  keep  him  so.    He  does  not  drive  him  to  death. 

Jack  stopped  at  the  stand  and  blew  his  bugle  and 
laughed  at  them  some  and  drove  off.  He  does  not 
trot  his  horses  for  money,  and  does  not  keep  his  horses' 
shoes  on.  This  horse  I  shod  for  this  surprise  for 
Jack,  a  few  days  before  this  great  horse  show^ :  and  as 
soon  as  the  horse  got  home  I  went,  or  Jack  came  and 
got  me,  and  off  came  Star's  shoes.  He  stood  on  the 
ground  floor. 

Jack  was  a  great  talker,  and  I  tried  to  beat  him  talk- 
ing. When  we  got  together  you  could  hear  some  of 
the  loudest  horse  talk  you  ever  heard,  because  we 
tried  to  talk  each  other  down  ;  and  each  had  to  raise 
his  voice  a  little  at  every  word,  and  it  would  get  to  a 
veil.  Jack  could  beat  me  talkins:.  Jack  told  me  all 
the  objection  he  had  to  me  was,  I  talked  too  much  ; 
and  that  was  all  of  the  fault  with  him,  but  I  could 
beat  him  balancing  horses. 

Let  us  look  at  this  tirade  of  cripples  going  home 
from  the  fair.  Tirade  is  a  proper  word  to  use,  for  some 
of  these  horses  were  tied  upon  their  feet,  and  in  many 
ways  caused  by  bad  shoeing  and  ironing  their  feet,  and 
some  had  two  sets  of  hoofs  in  growth.  Of  all  the 
sights  a  man  ever  saw  this  capped  the  climax.     I  have 


THE  horse's  rescue.  145 

told  JO  a  of  their  movement  on  the   track.     I  cannot 
describe  this  scene;   they  are  deformed  in  so  many 
ways   and    degrees,    straddling,    stiff,    poking    along, 
nearly  all  got  cards  on  their  bridles.     They  took  pre- 
miums according  to  their  class  and  degrees  of  worth, 
and  yet  not  one  of  these  horses  was  entered  as  a  crip- 
ple ;  neither  did  the  judges  know  they  were  cripples. 
If    they   did    they   were   not   honest     Reader,   what 
chance  do  you  think  a  man  would  have  with  such 
judges  if  he  was  to  be   tried  for  lunacy  for  talking 
horse?     I  had   to  look  sharp  and  keep  watch  of  my 
surroundings  in  this  town.     I  have  not  yetgotdone  in 
Horseheads  bawling  horse   and  experimenting  on  the 
horse  to  know  the  cause  of  all  of  these  horses'  troubles, 
and  they  are  many.     I  must  buy  and  work  on  many 
to  prove  and  test   their  ailments,  each  sepamtely,  in 
order  to  know  if  this  principle  of  working  on  the  feet 
would  remove  the  cause  of  this  trouble  and  suffering 
condition  of  these  horses.     This  is  no  easy  task,  but 
it  must  be  done  in  order  to  know.     Opinions  and  be- 
liefs are  not  knowledge.    These  things  must  be  proved 
by  experimenting.     It  occurred   to   me  after   I   had 
worked  on  these  horses  some  time,  that  it  ought  not 
to  cause  any  inflammation  by  changing  these  horses 
back  to  natural  by  this  process — spreading  the  feet — 
if  it  was  done  right,  and  if  I  did  not  go  beyond  nat- 
ural, that  is,  spread  too  much.     It  is  rather  hard  busi- 
iiess  to  work  on  these  horses  almost  night  and  day  to 
prevent  inflammation  taking  place  after  spreading.     I 
must  test  this  thing.     I  must  have  another  horse.     If 
it  kills  him  it  will  be  my  loss,  and  no  one  will  know 
what  did  kill  him. 


146      ,  THE  horse's  rescue. 

This  horse  I  prepared  in  the   most  skilful  and  care- 
ful manner,  to   test   tliis   operation.     I   made  the   foot 
very  soft  bv  soakins:  in    warm    water — water   is  all  I 
ever  use — tliat  is   natur.yl :  that  is  needed,  and   is  the 
best:  it  leaves  the  foot  all  right.     I  want   no  trash  on 
horses'  feet  for  me.    'Just  at  night  I  spread  these  feet, 
that  is,  the  two  forward   feet,  and  let  the  sole  down 
flat  or  nearly  so,  and  exercised  him  some;  put  him  in 
the  barn,  fed  him,  and  thought  I  would  sleep  to-night. 
I  did  not  go  to  the  barn   until  morning.     I  Inj  on  the 
lonnoe — not  any  sleerj  th.at  nijrht.     It  was  not  tlie  loss 
of  the  horse   that  ke}>t  me  awake.     I   never  stop  for 
money  when  I  want  to  test  anything.     I  went  to  the 
barn,  the  horse  was  eating  liay  ;  he  Inid  not  got  over  the 
change  vet.     I  well  knew  he  wouUl  not  without  moi'e 
exercise.     I  felt  of  his  feet;  they  wci-e  cool;  no  heat 
unnatural  in  them.     That's  a  bi-g  thing:  to  know;  that 
will  save  me  lots  of  work,  and  that  is  not  all ;  it  proves 
that  in  changing  the  horse  toward  natural,  if  done  right, 
no  heat  and  fever  or  inflammation  is  produced  by  the 
operation;  if  he  is  put  in  motion  when  in  hai'mony  of 
action   none    is    produced.     After  this  operation   the 
cause  is  removed,  the  unnatural  heat  is  gone,  and  the 
foot  does  not  dry  up  as  long  as  it  is  kept  so.     This  old 
shell  on  some  of  these  horses  of  long  standing  is  hard 
and  dried  up,  caused  by  great  internal  heat  that  closes 
the  pores  in  the  shell ;  it  seems  dead,  r.nd   thcJ'c  is  not 
much  life  in  it,  and  it  does  help  to  soak  and  keep  tliis 
old  shell  soft.     This  old  drv  shell  cannot  be  all  cut  ofi 
at  once,  and  if  you  do  not   keep  the  bottom   s]:)re:id  ii 
holds  the  new  from  o-rowin2f  natural.     There  liaveb'.M  n 
sets  of  feet  grown  and  cut  off,  of  long-standing  cases- 


THE  horse's  rescue.  147 

When  this  old  dried  shell  is  removed,  and  new  growth 
of  hoof  takes  place,  the  old  shell  kept  spreading  at 
the  bottom  so  as  to  allow  the  new  to  grow  natural,  yon 
will  find,  if  jou  trj^  it,  if  you  keep  the  structure- of 
the  foot  in  harmony  of  action,  you  have  removed  the 
'  cause  of  more  suffering  than  you  ever  thought  of 
There  are  some  cases  I  have  ?:een  that  are  incurable  ; 
some  of  long  standing  are  quite  easily  cured  ;  some  of 
short  standing  are  hard  to  cuie;  all,  or  nearly  all,  are 
caused  by  ironing  their  feet,  and  ignorance  k  is  the 
great  cause  of  all  this  suffering  the  poor  horse  has  to 
endure. 

Keader,  I  do  not  want  vou  to  understand  bv  this  ex- 
periment  that  there  is  no  use  in  washing  these  horses' 
legs  with  warm  water  and  packing  their  feet  while  they 
are  going  through  this  change.  I  have  already  writ- 
ten that  this  treatment  holds  good,  and  always  will, 
and  you  must  always  take  care  of  their  feet.  After 
the  fever  is  gone  they  do  not  want  much  packing, 
neither  do  they  want  much  soaking.  After  they  have 
got  back  on  their  base  they  want  work  in  mud,  snow, 
water;  that's  what  they  want.  Standing  in  the  barn 
will  spoil  the  best  horse  ever  was,  and  driving  him 
when    he    is  out    of  harmony    of  action   will    do    the 

same. 

Here  is  another  experiment.  I  prepared  one  of 
these  contracted  feet  and  let  the  sole  down  to  its  nat- 
ural place.  It  required  five-eighths  of  an  inch  to  do 
this  on  this  foot.  I  at  first  measured  all  of  the  feet 
before  I  spread.  I  do  not  now,  unless  I  want  to  know 
how  much  I  have  spread  the  foot,  or  to  show  others', 
the  sole  is  the  guide  in  raising  and  lowering  if  it  is 


14:8  THE   HOESE's   BESCUE. 

prepared  right  for  the  operation.  The  colt's  foot  in 
shape  is  the  object  structure  of  the  foot — all  iu  har- 
mony of  action — when  done  on  all  feet  of  horses  and 
mules  this  is  the  point  to  aina  at.  After  spreading 
the  foot,  as  I  have  above  written,  I  waited  six  hours; 
the  horse  was. not  lame.  I  had  spread  both  of  his  feet 
the  same;  he  was  doing  well:  no  heat  in  his  feet  un- 
natural. I  closed  or  contracted  his  foot  one-eighth  of 
an  inch  bv  measure  by  pressing  the  shoe  and  foot  to- 
gether to  see  if  there  would  be  any  heat  caused  by 
tills  opeiation  unnatural ;  and  how  long  it  would  be 
before  it  would  take  place,  and  what  degree  of  heat 
would  take  place  by  this  sudden  change  toward  the 
ur.iiatural.  The  horse  pointed  his  foot  out  instantly, 
and  was  lame.  I  was  shut  up  alone  iu  my  shop.  I 
put  my  hand  on  his  foot ;  I  could  feel  the  heat  arise; 
the  horse's  suffering  seemed  to  increase  with  the  heat, 
and  did,  I  left  him  in  this  condition  about  fifteen 
minutes;  I  had  learned  all  I  wanted  to  on  that  change 
toward  the  unnatural.  This  was  a  sudden  change  the 
wrong  way.  Unwilling  to  see  the  horse  suffer  any 
longer,  I  put  it  back  to  its  original  place,  one-eighth  of 
an  inch,  put  his  foot  in  the  tub  of  warm  water  a  short 
time,  then  moved  him  around  the  shop;  in  less  than 
fifteen  minutes  the  heat  was  all  gone,  the  horse  stood 
up  straight  with  his  weight  on  the  center  of  his  foot. 
The  man  that  allowed  Dave  Townsend  to  fool  him  b\^ 
letting  him  pull  the  spreading  shoes  off  from  that  iron- 
gra}^  got  in  this  hot  business;  if  they  had  been  long 
enough  on  to  get  settled  and  grov;  more  they  could 
have  been  taken  off  and  no  trouble  would  have  arisen 
from  so  doing.     He  drove  her  home  over  the  hubs, 


THE     horse's    rescue.  149 

about  four  miles.  It  was  winter,  and  that  helped  to 
set  this  lieat  a-going,  and  it  increased  according  to  the 
degrees  of  contraction,  and  she  w^^nt  off  her  base  ac- 
cording to  the  degrees  of  change  from  natural;  and 
slie  went  fast,  too,  and  he  lost  money  fast,  and  she 
continued  to  suffer,  all  caused  by  Dave  Townsend  and 
the  owner  of  the  horse's  ignorance.  This  principle  of 
heating  horses'  feet  holds  good  ;  expanding  too  much 
will  cause  heat  according  to  the  degree  of  chano-e 
from  natural.  So  much  for  Dave  Townsend's  skill  on 
the  horse. 

Here  is  another  experiment  in  this  town.  Georo-e 
Woodrough  is  a  horse  trainer  by  profession.  Geor^^e 
was  my  true  friend,  and  so  was  his  father,  Dr.  Wood- 
rough.  George's  stable  was  close  to  mine.  I  let  him 
in  my  stable  after  I  had  been  working  on  these  horses, 
and  he  knew  what  I  did  on  their  feet.  He  had  a  very 
fine  mare,  valued  at  five  hundred  dollars;  he  told  me 
she  hopped  behind;  she  was  not  trotting  well;  she 
would  go  level  at  a  moderate  gait,  but  when  he 
wanted  her  to  sail  she  would  tangle  up  an^  hop  on 
one  foot ;  he  could  not  keep  her  level ;  he  said  she  had 
a  record  and  she  was  going  back;  I  told  him  it  was  a 
limp;  he  wanted  me  to  look  her  over;  at  that  time  I 
had  not  seen  her  move  ;  I  told  him  if  I  could  not  tell 
which  foot  it  was  she  hopped  on  I  could  not  do  any- 
thing for  her.     I  must  see  it  in  the^foot. 

"George,  if  I  tell  you  which  foot  she  hops  on  with- 
out seeing  her  move  you  will  think  I  know  what  ails 
her.  won't  you?'' 

'^Yes." 

"It  is  the  nigh  foot;  that  is  the  foot." 


160  THE  horse's  rescuk 

"  What  do  you  see  there?" 

''Look  in  front  of  these  two  feet,  they  are  not 
mates  ;  this  lame  foot  is  contracted  ;  look  at  the  heels : 
til  is  lame  foot  is  not  as  wide  at  the  heel  as  its  mate  by 
half  an  inch,  the  sole  is  raised,  the  lever  is  longer, 
strLicture  out  of  harmony,  there  is  moi'e  strain  on  the 
tendons,  it  hurts  to  raise  over  that  lever  which  is  not 
seen  at  the  toe;  it  tossed  her  up  on  that  side  and 
throws  her  off  her  balance." 

"  Can  3'ou  level  her?" 

"Yes,  if  you  will  let  me."   • 

Geoi'ge  had  not  seen  these  horses  at  that  time  go 
through  tliis  chano[e.  I  told  him  I  was  afraid  he 
would  be  scared.  This  is  a  valuable  mare.  He  said 
he  would  not.  This  was  about  ten  days  previous  to 
the  fair.  He  wanted  to  show  her  at  the  fair;  he  had 
a  mate  to  drive  with  her;  he  wanted  her  level.  I 
told  him  I  must  spread  her  foot.  I  told  him  how  she 
would  be  in  a  short  time,  and  he  must  follow  the 
directions,  and  pay  no  attention  to  thebawling,  forthere 
would  be  lots  of  it.  "  We  must  exercise  her,"  said  I, 
and  you  must  do  it.  I  have  all  of  the  horses  I  can  handle 
now.  If  you  get  her  ready  for  the  fair  I  will  operate 
on  her,  and  you  must  do  the  rest  of  the  work.  I  will 
tell  you  how."  I  thought  I  would  come  out  in  day- 
light on  this  iob  ;  Geor^je  was  not  as  much  of  a  nie:ht 
bird  as  I  was.  We  got  her  in  the  shop  and  went  at  it. 
I  prepared  her  foot  and  spread  it ;  it  took  George  two 
davs  to  soak  her  foot  to  set  it  soft. 

I  took  this  mare  right  through  the  business  part  of 
this  town,  limping  and  standing  upon  her  toe.  A 
crowd  soon  gathered  around  to  know  the  cause  of  the 


THE    horse's    rescue.  151 

trouble  she  was  in.     In  order  to  keep  clear  of  this 
rabl)lf3  I  was  forced  to  battle  witli   them   nearly  all  of 
tiie  time,  so  I  might  be  ai)le  to  go  on  witli    mv  work. 
I  was  ol)li<^e(i  to  tell  them  a  lie.      I  told  ihem  it  was  a 
very  bad  aid^le  sprain,  and  kept  on  movin<2:  her  around, 
going  througli   the  same  process  in  getting   her  down 
on  her  heel  to  flat  rest.     This  process  they  all  have  to 
go  through  ;  some  it  affects  more  than  others.     It  did 
not  last  long  with  this  mare.     I  took   her  in  the  shop, 
closed  the  doors,  and  worked  on  her  there.     I  soon 
got  her  down  all  right,  no  limping.     Out  I  came  in  the 
street  again.     This  is  quite  a  business  town.     I  led  her 
all  over  the  town  ;  the  crowd  gathered  in  manv  places 
to  learn  how  I  cured  her  so  quick.     I  told  them  I  had 
a  way  that  belongs  to  me.     Greoi-ge   and  I  took  a  sail 
after  her  around   the  town   and  out   in  the  country  to 
see  if  she  was  level.     She  went  all   level,  no  hoppinir. 
Tills  foot  was  spread  half  an  inch.     Of  course  it  must 
have  time  to  get  strength  after  this   change,  and  settle 
and  grow  before  it  could  get  strong.     After  this  hard 
day's  work  with   this   horse  and  others  I  thought  I 
would  walk  down  town  and  see  what  kind  of' a  racket 
I  had  made. 

I  walked  in  the  Riant  House.  I  got  it  slap  in  the 
face.  "  You're  a  dam  purty  man,  you  are.  You  have 
spoilt  George  Woodrough's  five  hundred  dollar  mare." 
"You  publish  this  in  the  papers ;  you  can  spread  it 
faster  and  it  will  be  less  trouble. "^  This  man  ran  a 
cooper  shop  on  the  bardc  of  the  canal.  He  came  to 
me  after  thic  to  get  an  old  cripple  cured,  not  worth 
curing.  He  bragged  on  her  very  much.  He  said  she 
came  from  Orange  county ;  she  was  a  fast  sailer.     I 


152  THE  horse's  rescue. 

did  shoe  her,  but  she  was  so  much  out  of  harmony 
slie  was  not  worth  curing.  If  I  had  tried  he  would 
have  fought  me,  so  I  could  not  do  it.  Such  fools  as 
these  I  heeded  not.  This  mare  went  to  the  fair,  and 
T  followed  her  to  superintend  and  see  that  her  foot 
was  not  allowed  to  get  dry.  She  had  not  had  time 
enough.  The  drying  up  of  the  foot  would  raise  the 
sole  up.  If  it  was  but  a  small  degree  it  would  affect 
her  action  at  that  tiaie.  She  showed  all  level.  In  six 
months  after  this  fair  two  men  came  to  this  place  and 
bought  this  mare  and  paid  a  big  price.  Thej  came 
from  Williamspcrt,  Pa.  George  was  to  deliver  her  at 
that  time ;  mj  time  was  all  taken  up  experimenting. 
I  did  not  shoe  any  horses.  In  the  morning  George 
was  going  to  start  with  this  mare.  I  went  in  the 
stable.  It  was  hubby.  He  said  he  was  going  to  ride 
her.  It  is  a  lonoj  iournev.  He  had  her  shod  for  this 
journey.  I  cast  my  eyes  down  to  this  mare's  foot. 
"George,  this  mare  will  be  very  lame  before  you  get 
through.  Why,  look  at  them  levers  on  the  toes.  She 
never  can  stand  that."  It  is  no  use  describing  this 
botch  job. 

"  I  have  got  my  pay  and  pay  for  taking  her  through," 
said  George. 

The  men  that  did  this  skilful  work  on  this  horse's  feet 
were  my  warm  friends.  This  valuable  horse  was 
slaughtered  the  first  time  she  got  in  the  shop  after  all 
my  hard  work,  and  yet  I  charged  nothing  for  my 
extra  work.  They  got  pay  for  spoiling  her,  and  they 
would  like  by  their  actions  no  better  fun  than  to  see 
me  crucified  or  got  rid  of  in  some  way.  Tliat  I  was 
i]ot  ignorant  of.     Stay  I  would  as  long  as  I  wanted  to, 


THE   hokse's  kesoue.  158 

and   did,    and    worked  on  those   lame   and  crippled 
horses  of  all  kinds. 

George  returned.     I  asked  him  how  he  got  through. 
He  told  the  man  the  cause,  and  they  removed   it  bj 
removing  the  shoes,  and  that  is  the  way  to  cure  thou- 
sands of  lame  and  crippled   horses,  and  never  nail  or 
have  nailed  on  any  shoes   unless  it  could  be  done  by 
men  that  have  more  and  better  brains  than  these   men 
seem   to  have.     A  man's  work  corresponds  with  the 
caliber  of  his  brain,  quantity  and  quality  and  degrees 
of  development,  and  when   this  is  understood  a  man 
will  not  be  in  so  much  danger  of  being  killed  for  cur- 
ing stiff  and  lame  horses  as  I  was  in  Horseheads.     It 
was  a  hard  job  for  me  to  cure,  and  keep  cured,  so 
rnanv  horses  where  there  was  so   much  slaughtering. 
They  could  slaughter  twenty  times  faster  than  I  could 
cure.     One   man   could  do   that,  and  there  were  hun- 
dreds at  it,  and   those  that  I  had  cured  they  would 
slaughter  over  again   if  the}^  could  get  them,  and  yet 
I  tried  to  keep  up  with   them.     If  they  had  thought 
of  that  they  might  have  got  me  in  the  asylum.     I  was 
experimenting,  and  they   were  ignorant  of  this  fact, 
and  had  but  very  little  knowledge  of  the  horse  or  any 
right  or  wrong  principle  to  iron  a  horse's  foot.     Still 
they  had  some  power  to  control  others  to  fight  me,  and 
did,  and  yet  after  they  got  through   they  were  as  big 
fools  as  they  were  two  years  before.     As  for  knowl- 
edge of  the  horse,  I  never  learned  in  that  way,  and  I 
never  saw  any  one  that  did.     I  sometimes  fight  with 
my  mouth  to  clear  away  the  rubbish,  and  have  to  yet. 
If  I  paid  attention   to  all  who   advised  me,  1  could 
never  get  through.     They  seemed    to  differ  so  on  all 


154  THE   horse's   rescue. 

points,  and  make  none.  It  would  drive  a  man  like 
me  cvixzy.  My  mind  is  so  weak,  and  I  have  been  told 
so  veij  often  I  can  hardl}^  tell  myself.  If  I  am  not 
crazy  now  there  will  be  no  danger. 

Let  us  go  on  with  this  horse  fight.     It  is  time  to  go 
and  see  Billy  Crawford.     Poor  Billy,  I  can't  get  him. 
He   has  got  to  die  by  inches.     He  stands  in  a  box 
stall.      He  is  not  seen  out  on  the  road  lately.     I  must 
see  if  I  can  find  ther  cause.     I  well  knew  he  would  go 
on    from  bad   to   worse.     Poor  horse,  if  I   could  only 
get  you  how  quick  I  coald  relieve  you  of  some  of  that 
suffering.     I  can  come  close  to  you  ;  your  owner  I 
cannot  reach.     He  did  talk  with  me  about  you  once, 
and  I  thought  I  was  going  to  get  you  to  cure,  but  that 
wa=  all  wind,  and  that  will  not  cure  suffering  horses. 
There  are  lots  of  that  kind  of  horse  doctors  all  over 
the  land,  and  yet  these  poor  horses  like  you  are  owned 
by  them.     Tiiey  cannot  cure  them,  neither  will  they 
let  any  one  else.     I  have  performed  some  cures  in  this 
place.     I  should  think  he  might  let  me  have  you  ;  you 
are  of  no  use  to  him  now  that  3H)u  are  past  work.    I  sup- 
pose he  is  afraid  you  will  take  cold  if  you  do  not  have 
shoes  on.     My  God !  what  is  the   use  of  this    poor, 
dying    horse    having    shoes  on,  standing  in  the  stall 
month  after  month  ?     If  some  good  and  wise  man  can 
tell  me  I  would  like  to  know.     These  shoes  holding 
the  foot  from  growing  natural,  and  two  sets  of  feet  in 
growth  on  at  that.     This  work  is  to  expose  all  such 
icrnorance  as  that.     Look  at  this  horse;  eyes  sunken 
and  staring,   and  glossy  hair  all  dying.     He  is  very 
nervous,  eats  ravenousl}^,  pot-bellied  ;  he  stands  with 
his  back  humped  across  the  line;  head  drawn  down, 


THE  horse's  rescue.  165 

and  is  so  stiff  and  sore  he  can  hardly  move.  If 
he  does  it  hurts  him  fearfully,  and  yet  tlie  owner  of 
this  horse  is  a  horse  doctor.  There  is  a  boy  sixteen 
vears  old  that  takes  care  of  this  stable  of  horses.  He 
was  blamed  for  this  horse's  stiffness,  which  I  well  knew 
he  was  not  to  blame  for,  and  I  am  going  to  rescue  him 
before  I  get  through  this  work.  I  talked  with  this  boy, 
and  told  him  the  cause  of  his  favorite  horse's  trouble, 
and  told  him  he  vould  go  on  from  bad  to  worse  unless 
it  was  removed.  Then  I  walked  away.  I  had  given 
up  all  hopes  of  getting  him.  It  was  not  the  pay  that 
I  was  after.  I  would  give  ten  dollars  to  get  him,  but 
I  well  knew  I  could  not  get  him  if  I  had  offered  to 
do  it  in  this  wav.  Hundreds  of  such  men  have 
talked  with  me  for  hours  at  a  time  about  their 
stiff  and  crippled  horses,  and  told  me  they  would  give 
me  big  money  if  I  would  cure  them,  but  it  was  all 
dead  wind.  It  would  have  been  just  as  well  if  it  had 
never  been  blown.  The  horse  remained  a  cripple  the 
same.  I  have  cured,  or  nearly  so,  hundreds-  of  these 
horses;  so  much  so,  they  called  them  cured,  and  they 
thought  they  were  at  least.  They  talked  so,  when  I 
well  knew^  they  were  not.  I  did  relieve  their  suffer- 
ing some  for  the  time.  With  all  of  my  hard  work,  I 
could  get  but  little  credit  in  this  town. 

While  working  in  my  shop  some  months  after  this 
talk  with  this  boy  about  Billy  Crawford,  he  came  to 
mv  shop.  He  had  never  been  in  my  shop  that  I  knew 
of  at  that  time.  In  a  pitiful  way  he  approached  me. 
"Mri  Doan,  will  you  cure  Billy  for  me?  I  will  pay 
you.     I  have  money  of  my  own," 

"  It  will   hardly  do  for  me  to  go  to  work  on  him 


156  THE  horse's  rescxj£ 

without  your  father's  consent,  will  it?     I  have  never 
had  any  of  your  father's  horses  in  my  shop." 

"  I  get  all  of  the  horses  shod  and  take  care  of  them. 
He  will  not  know  anything  about  it.  It  will  not  do 
for  me  to  put  spreaders  on  his  feet.  That  will  be 
rather  too  high-handed  without  his  consent." 

''My  dear  boy,''  said  I,  "I  can  help  your  horse 
very  much  without  spreaders  if  you  will  not  let  any 
one  know  I  am  at  work  on  him.  Should  your  father 
find  I  was  working  on  Billy  he  might  make  trouble 
for  me  and  you  too.  If  you  will  follow  directions — 
my  directions,  not  others' — I  will  put  Billy  sailing  on 
the  road  in  two  days.'' 

''I  will  do  just  as  you  tell  me,"  said  the  boy.  '  This 
is  to  be  kept  a  secret,  and  we  two  must  keep  it." 

"Yes;  all  right.     Fetch  up  Billy." 

This  horse  was  brought  into  the  shop.  I  had  not 
seen  Billy  in  a  long  time.  He  had  been  growing 
worse  daily,  and  the  boy  knew  it,  and  that  was  the 
cause  of  his  comirjg  to  me.  The  horse  had  shoes  on 
all  of  his  feet,  which  had  grown  very  high  and  long, 
and  were  badly  contracted.  In  one  of  his  forward 
feet  he  was  very  lame.  It  was  contracted  more  than 
the  other.  He  had  been  lame  in  that  foot  ever  since 
I  knew  him.  It  was  pinched  badly  "If  I  dared  put 
a  spreader  on  this  foot,"  thought  I,  "  how  easy  I  could 
iret  him  out  of  that,  but  it  will  not  do.    I  must  do  the 

o 

best  I  can  in  the  old  way.  That  way  is  slow,  and  this 
foot  is  so  full  of  heat  it  will  be  a  hard  job  to  keep  it 
soft." 

It  will  help  him  wonderfully  to  cut  his  feet  down. 


THE   horse's   rescue.  157 

and  it  would   be  better  if  he  could  go  without  shoes 
unless  the  work  is  done  better  than  this  seems  to  be. 

Let  us  move  this  horse  around,  and  see  how  much 
he  is  out  of  harmony  of  action,  before  I  commence 
work  on  liim,  and  we  will  watch  the  result.  After 
you  read  this,  look  arounJ,  and  you  may  see  some 
cases  as  bad  as  this.  There  are  not  many  put  in  mo- 
tion that  are  as  bad  as  this  horse  had  got  to  be.  They 
are  so  out  of  harmony  they  cannot  be  put  in  motion 
and  run  in  any  way.  The  whole  business  is  com- 
pletely tied  up  and  clogged  internally  and  externally  , 
cords  all  out  of  place;  structure  of  feet  all  out  of  har- 
mony of  action,  and  no  two  feet  alike,  consequently 
no  two  of  the  cords  of  the  legs  are  alike.  This  horse's 
shoulders  were  not  mates.  One  foot  had  been  worse 
than  the  other  for  some  time,  and  was  yet.  Certainly 
it  will  require  some  brain  work  to  get  this  horse  sail- 
ing on  the  road  in  two  days.  I  told  the  boy  that  if  he 
would  take  good  care  of  Billy  I  would  not  charge  him 
except  for  shoeing  the  horse;  and  he  did  take  good 
care  of  him,  '"Stand  around,  Billy."  Heavens!  I 
cannot  describe  this  horse  so  you  can  tell  how  badly 
ofif  he  was  from  so  small  cause,  and  that  is  ignorance, 
blind  and  wilfullv  so.  But  I  have  started  and  I  must 
go  through.  When  this  horse  was  made  to  move  he 
straddled  his  hini  Icofs  the  widest  of  any  horso  I  ever 
saw  of  his  size,  and  raised  them  the  highest.  It  was 
done  with  a  stiff  and  slow  motion^  He  was  \-ery  nerv- 
ous, an'd  seemed  to  tremble  when  I  made  him  move. 
I  backed  him,  and  he  dragged  his  feet  and  his  hind 
legs  ;  he  seemed  to  have  but  little  control  of  them. 
Some  would  call  this  spring-halt.     It  was  not  that,  for 


158  THE   horse's  rescue. 

he  had  got  past  all  spring  motion.  His  movements 
were  slow  and  stiff.  He  would  not  move  at  all  unless 
he  was  forced  to  it.  It  hurt  him  in  many  ways.  He 
was  verv  sore  across  the  loin  and  kidneys.  In  fact, 
he  was  sore  all  over.  This  soreness  and  stiffness  can- 
not be  removed  in  two  days.  It  vfill  take  time  for 
that  to  disappear  after  the  cause  is  removed,  and  that 
cannot  be  done  by  the  process  I  am  obliged  to  work 
on  .  but  I  can  change. him  back  toward  natural  many 
degrees  in  this  way,  and  his  suffering  will  disappear 
according  to  the  deo^rees  of  chanjie  toward  natural, 
and  if  I  can  relieve  part  of  his  suffering  I  shall  be  well 
paid.  We  will  fix  him  behind  first.  It  will  be  neces- 
sary to  cut  away  all  useless  hoof,  and  shoe  on  the  same 
principle  I  have  shod  all  others  for  expanding  the  foot 
by  the  horse's  weight — his  forward  feet  the  same. 
This  is  all  I  can  do.  .One  of  the  forward  feet  is  rolled 
under  at  the  heels.  The  structure  of  this  foot  is  more 
out  of  harmony  than  the  other  three.  If  I  could  have 
this  horse  to  do  as  I  wished,  I  would  soon  put  his  feet 
in  shape.  By  spreading,  I  could  put  his  foot  in  or 
out  of  harmony.  Cutting  away  the  useless  hoof  and 
shoeing  this  horse  on  scientific  principles — thin,  fiat 
shoes — helped  his  movement  at  once,  and  this  same 
treatment  will  help  all  horses  that  are  in  this  deformed 
condition,  and  there  are  countless  numbers  all  over 
'the  world,  and  countless  numbers  of  people  that  are 
ignorant  of  this  plain  fact,  as  the  owner  of  this  poor, 
suffering  horse  was.  '     • 

"  Bub,"  said  I,  "  take  this  horse  to  his  stable;  soak 
his  feet  well  in  warm  water  all  around,  then  pack 
them  all  with  cow  manure;  that  is  the  cheapest  and 


THE   horse's   rescue.  159 

best,  and  can  be  got  with  little  trouble.  It  will  draw 
out  the  soreness,  keep  the  foot  moist,  and  stay  in  bet- 
ter, and  there  is  no  stone  or  "-ravel  in  it,  as  there  raifrht 
be  in  clav,  for  the  sole  to  settle  on  between  the  sole 
and  shoe.  I  want  the  sole  to  settle.  After  you  have 
softened  his  feet,  drive  him,  moderately  at  first,  on 
smooth  roads.  After  a  few  days  you  can  let  him  sail. 
Pack  all  of  his  feet  when  standing  in  the  stable 
nights.  Never  neglect  it;  and  keep  the  feet  moist 
while  going  through  this  change  and  afterward  unless 
you  want  to  drive  a  cripple.  Before  you  drive  clear 
all  out  under  the  shoe.''  I  have  already  written 
enough  about  that.  This  is  a  lesson  to  this  bov.  I 
called  him  '' Bub."  I  never  learned  his  given  name. 
I  write  as  I  talk.  Men  use  different  words  to  convey 
the  same  ideas,  and  I  may  use  some  that  others  would 
not.  It  is  principles  on  the  hgrse  which  I  want  to 
convey,  on  relieving  the  suffering  horse  scientifically 
without  medicine. 

I  watched  the  change  and  action  of  this  horse.  He 
was  driving  by  my  shop  daily,  and  many  times  a  day. 
In  ten  days  the  spring-halt  was  all  gone ;  he  settled 
down  across  the  loin  ;  he  changed  back  wonderfully 
in  that  short  time.  This  ''spring-halt"  business  is 
called  by  great  horsemen  "string-halt."  With  all  of 
my  experience  I  have  never  seen  anj^  strings  about  it. 
Some  say  it  is  caused  by  horses  sweating  too  much  in 
the  flank.  What  is  the  use  of  ta^lking  such  baby  talk 
as  that?  After  they  have  removed  the  cause  of  this 
difficulty  on  scientific  principles  they  will  know.  Un- 
til they  do,  or  see  it  done,  they  must  remain  in  igno- 
rance of  these  demonstrated  facts. 


160  THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

I  superintended,  shod,  and  cared  for  this  horse's  feet, 
with  this  boy's  help,  for  several  months,  and  we  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Billy  quite  a  trotter  again. 
He  got  to  looking  well,  tiie  hair  brightened  up  and  lay 
sleek;  his  body  rounded  up;  he  could  rest  nights.  If 
he  was  not  in  harmony  of  action  on  his  forward  feet 
he  was  so  much  so  that  it  would  not  be  seen  by  such 
judges  as  awarded  him  a  premium  at  Elmira  six 
months  before.  He  could  have  been  put  in  harmony 
of  action  if  I  could  have  been  allowed  to  do  it  by  his 
owner. 

They  called  all  of  these  stiff  horses  in  this  place 
*' foundered,"  and  classed  them  in  four  kinds.  After 
I  had  cured  them  it  was  something  else — "road-sore" 
or  "  rheumatism,"  or  they  would  oret  stiff  asrain.  I 
had  worked  almost  night  and  day  in  this  town,  and 
had  spent  hundreds  of  dollars  besides  what  I  earned 
shoeing,  a  great  deal  of  which  was  paid  me  in  prom- 
ises that  were  never  fulfilled.  I  saw  that  my  money 
was  going  fast.  I  must  change  my  course  or  there 
would  be  danger  of  shipwreck.  I  used  no  medicine, 
consequently  I  could  not  get  any  pay  for  my  skill. 

A  thought  occurred  to  me  to  experiment  on  the  hu- 
man family.  I  always  have  been  experimenting  and 
watching  the  result.  I  picked  up  two  castawav  beer 
bottles,  went  to  the  brick-yard,  put  sjme  brick-dust  in 
them,  and  filled  them  with  water.  Then  I  got  some 
of  the  ingredients  fi-om  a  hen-roost  to  make  up  this 
composition,  and  locked  it  up  in  my  desk.  They 
would  ha\'e  it  I  used  medicine  in  some  way.  I 
thought,  as  I  could  not  have  my  way,  I  would  let 
them  have  their  way,  and  see  what  the  result  would 


THE     HORSES    RESCUE.  161 

be.  Soon  there  came  a  man  with  a  lame  horse.  This 
was  a  common  thing  at  all  hours  of  the  day  at  my 
shop.  Some  came  thirty  miles  and  farther.  All  came 
to  get  cured  for  the  price  of  shoeing  the  horse.  My 
fame  had  spread  far  and  wide.  This  horse  had  been 
lame  about  two  years.  His  shoulders  had  been  blis- 
tered,  and  his  cords,  too,  until  the  hair  was  all  off. 
He,  too,  was  sent  to  me.  He  wanted  me  to  tell  him 
what  ailed  his  horse.  Tired  nearly  to  death,  talking 
with  so  many  from  mornincr  until  nif^ht,  and  workinor 
at  the  same  time,  I  told  him  it  was  coffin-joint  diffi- 
culty, as  it  was.  But  that  was  not  all  of  his  trouble; 
he  wanted  to  know  if  I  could  cure  it. 

"Yes,"  I  replied,  "I  can,  but  it  will  require  some 
powerful  medicine  to  reach  that." 

I  heated  up  my  water,  prepared  the  foot,  put  it  to 
soak  in  the  tub,  went  to  the  desk,  which  I  unlocked, 
and  took  these  two  bottles  of  medicine  out.  I  poured 
some  of  the  contents  of  each  in  the  water.  Then  I 
put  the  bottles  in  the  desk  again  and  locked  it.  After 
this  horse's  foot  had  soaked  a  short  time  I  dressed  and 
shod  it.  All  that  ailed  this  horse,  or  rather  the  cause  of 
his  lameness,  was  having  irons  put  on  his  feet  by  some 
one  that  knew  but  very  little  about  the  horse.  Some 
smith  had  cut  off  the  sides  of  his  foot,  set  the  shoe 
too  narrow,  and  rnn  it  out  at  the  toe.  The  lever 
would  have  made  him  lame  if  nothing  more  had  taken 
place.  The  coifin-joint  was  out  of  harmony.  I  told 
the  owner  he  would  go  better  by  degrees ;  in  ten  days 
he  would  be  well.  At  the  end  of  that  time  he  came 
to  my  shop  and  told  me  it  turned  out  as  I  said  it 
would.     I  did  not  practice  this  new  process  of  curing 


162  THE   horse's  rescur 

horses  long,  neither  did  I  charge  an}^  extra  aside  from 
shoeiuL^.  I  soon  saw  thev  could  be  humbuooed  hv 
nie,  and  easily  too.  But  this  was  not  wliat  I  was  airn- 
ing  at.  There  were  too  man}^  at  work  at  tliat  now  for 
the  [)ay.  I  did  not  cause  the  horse  suffering,  and  they 
<]id.  My  health  fj'om  this  laboi'ious  wcik  was  likely 
to  give  out.  I  decided  to  make  a  bold  stand  right  in 
the  hottest  of  this  battle  for  the  hoi'se.  I  would  find 
an  old  horse  that  was  well  known  by  many  and  was 
stiff  and  lame,  and  what  they  called  "  founde]-ed  "  of 
loLg  standing.  I  searched  around  for  a  long  tim.e  to 
find  the  one  I  wanted.  I  could  hardly  go  amiss  of 
stiff  and  lame  horses,  and  they  were  all  for  sale,  but 
W'ere  not  Vvhat  I  wanted.  At  last  one  came  to  me.  I 
saw  str.ndinc;  tied  in  the  stj-eet  an  old-lookino",  stiff, 
white  mare,  poor  in  flesh.  She  seemed  shriyeled  and 
dried  up  around  her  shouldei's ;  her  neck  di'opped 
down  from  withers;  eyes  surdvcn.  She  stood  braced 
out,  with  her  feet  huddled  together.  I  looked  her 
leirs  over.  She  war.  of  Messenger  stock;  her  limbs 
were  as  smooth  and  clean  as  a  deer's.  The  hind  feet 
and  legs  were  quite  natural,  and  she  stood  well  on 
them.  I  looked  in  her  mouth,  and  saw  that  she  was 
old.  She  had  a  parrot  n^.outh — that  is,  the  upper 
teeth  shut  over  the  under  ones.  I  knew  she  could 
eat,  for  that  kind  of  a  mouth  will  allow  the  grinders 
to  come  together  when  old.  While  I  was  looking"  the 
horse  ovej",  a  man  came  who  was  her  owner.  That 
was  what  I  w.-is  waiting  foi'.  I  had  made  up  mv  mind 
to  liave  this  mai'e  pi'oviding  I  could  trace  her  past  life, 
if  I  had  to  pay  twenty  times  as  much  as  she  was 
was  woi'th.      Her  stii'fuess  was  of  longstanding;  that 


THE    HORSES    RESCUK  163 

I  knew,  and  her  worth  to  me  was  not  ten  cents  except 
for  experiment.  I  did  not  tell  him  what  I  wanted  her 
for. 

"  AVill  you  sell  this  mare?"'  I  inquired. 

He  said  she  was  a  pet  in  the  family;  "the  old 
women  could  drive  her."  Tliev  can  drive  all  such 
cripples  as  this,  but  not  far  in  a  day  (I  did  not  tell  him 
that). 

"Whom  did  you  get  her  of?"' 

"Marshal.  He  keeps  this  crockery  store  right 
here.  His  father  raised  her.  Let  us  go  in  and  talk 
with  Marshal." 

"  Mr.  Marshal,  can  vou  tell  me  this  mare's  life  from 
a  colt?" 

"  I  can,  nearly  so.  She  was  owned  by  Yardcee  "Wes- 
ton. At  three  3'ears  old  my  father  bought  her.  Siic 
had  always  been  in  the  family  until  I  sold  her  to  this 
man." 

"  How  old  is  she  now  ?" 

"  T went V- three." 

"  How  long  has  she  been  stiff?" 

"She    was    foundered    when    she    was    eight  years 

old." 

"According    to    that,    she     has    been    stiE    fifteen 

years." 

*'Yes." 

"  How  was  it  done?" 

"Father  let  the  hired  man  have  her  to  drive,  and  he 
nearlv  drove  her  to   death.     She  has  been  stiff  ever 


7? 

SHICC. 


"  Did  you  ever  try  to  do  anything  for  her?"  * 

"Yes;   we  did  everything  we  could.     She  has  been 


164  THE  horse's  rescue. 

blistered,  seatoned,  and  roweled,  and  she  ran  out  two 
years.     It  did  not  seem  to  lielp  her." 

"  Cap./'  said  I,  "  what  will  you  take  for  this  mare?" 

•'  Had  I  better  sell  her,  Marshal  ?''  said  he. 

"  Let  him  have  her  if  he  wants  her,''  replied  Mar- 
shal. 

"You  may  have  her,"  said  the  owner  to  me,  "for 
fifty  dollars." 

"Here  are  four  ten-dollar  bills,"  said  I.  "I  will 
give  them  to  you  for  her." 

"  If  you  will  let  me  keep  her  one  week — that  will 
finish  up  my  fall's  work — I  will  do  it.  I  will  bring  her 
down." 

He  came  as  he  agreed.  That  was  the  biggest  horse 
sale  that  had  been  made  in  that  town,  and  it  would 
have  gone  hard  with  me  if  they  had  hauled  me  up  for 
lunacy.  Paying  so  much  for  such  a  horse  as  that,  in 
the  fall,  did  show  some  symptoms  of  insanity  ;  but, 
said  I,  I  will  risk  it.  I  wuU  kick  up  a  bigger  racket  if 
they  do  not  take  better  care  of  their  horses.  After 
clearing  my  shop  of  some  work  I  had  on  hand,  I  led 
this  old  mare  into  the  most  public  places,  and  com- 
menced talking  horse  in  order  to  attract  attention. 
After  the  crowd  had  gathered  I  told  them  the  object 
I  had  in  doing  this  was  to  get  their  opinion  on  this 
horse.  '  Many  of  you,"  I  told  them,  "know  her.  I 
want  you  to  say,  in  your  judgment,  if  you  call  this 
horse  foundered  of  long  standing.  Marshal  says  she 
was  stiffened  fifteen  years  ago."  They  stared  at  me, 
and  looked  at  each  other.  Finally  I  got  some  of 
them  to  pronounce  her  foundered  of  long  standing.  I 
told  them  they  had  better  put  some  private  mark  on 


THE   horse's  bescue.  165 

her  or  brand  her.  I  was  going  to  try  to  cure  this 
horse  without  medicine,  and  in  si:x:  months  they 
would  not  know  her.  Then  I  went  to  another  part  of 
the  town.  As  I  marched  away  I  heard  mutteringlike 
tliis,  "  The  damned  old  fool  is  crazy."  That  I  knew 
would  come,  and  worse,  before  I  started  out.  I  got 
another  crowd  in  another  place,  and  told  the  same 
story  over.  This  I  followed  up  for  several  hours,  then 
led  the  horse  up  Main  street.  She  hobbled  along, 
stepping  about  eight  inches,  one  foot  over  the  other; 
head  down  ;  lame  on  both  feet,  and  Inmei*  on  one  than 
the  other.  On  mv  route  home  I  w:is  in  the  center 
of  the. street.  People  were  passing  and  repassing  on 
all  sides  of  me.  I  had  got  to  be  quite  well  known  at 
that  time.  I. took  it  on  all  sides,  but  all  they  could 
get  out  of  me  was,  "My  money  paid  for  this  horse.'' 
I  led  her  in  the  yard  at  my  house.  My  wife  looked 
at  her.  She  did  not  say  much,  but  I  could  see  she 
did  not  fancy  my  purchase.  I  put  the  horse  in  the 
barn.  Next  morning  she  liad  to  be  led  through  Main 
street  to  get  to  my  shop.  I  took  the  center  of  the 
street.  This  street  parade  got  up  more  opposition. 
The  old  women  took  it  up,  and  tliey  went  to  talking 
horse.  When  I  had  attracted  their  attention  I  thought 
there  would  be  hopes  that  some  of  them  might  want 
to  know  what  all  of  this  racket  was  about.  In  that 
case  there  would  be  a  good  chance  to  teach  them. 
But  these  rackets,  would  rise  and  fall,  and  no  one 
seemed  to  learn  anything  about  the  horse.  By  their 
talk  I  judged  they  knew  it  all,  and  for  this  reason  the}'' 
could  not  learn.  When  a  man  arrives  at  this  stage  of 
progression,  there  is  not  much   hope.     When  a  man 


166  THE  horse's   rescuk 

is  satisfied  with  what  he  has  got,  he  is  not  prepared 
for  anything  higher.  I  was  not  satisfied,  witli  all  my 
experience  and  experimenting.  I  wanted  to  try  and 
see  what  effect  it  would  have  on  this  old,  chronic, 
long-standing  case,  to  please  myself,  and  as  long  as  I 
paid  my  way,  and  was  burdensome  to  no  man,  and  the 
money  I  used  was  the  proceeds  of  my  own  labor,  it 
was  the  business  of  no  man  to  interfere  with  mv  busi- 
ness  until  I  wrong  or  injure  some  one,  then,  of 
course,  I  should  have  been  amenable  to  the  law. 

This  old  mare  I  took  into  my  shop,  pulled  off  her 
shoes,  and  dressed  her  feet.  They  were  so  rolled  up 
by  conti-action  on  the  bottom  that  they  had  but  very 
little  frog  They  had  the  appearance  of  a  grain  of 
coffee  on  the  seam  side,  and  they  were  very  hard.  I 
well  knew  this  was  a  long  and  hard  job,  and  what  the 
result  would  be  I  knew  not.  I  had  tnken  a  bold 
stand.  If  I  failed  whose  business  is  it?  Where  is 
there  a  man  that  has  not  made  some  failures  in  life? 
But  in  this  town  I  was  in  the  way  of  some,  and  they 
hud  their  dupes  to  help  them  do  their  dirty  work,  and 
they  had  lots  of  it  to  do  in  many  ways.  I  put  my 
spreading  shoes  on.  After'  soaking  very  soft  and 
spreading  her  feet  the  first  time  one-quarter  of  an 
inch,  it  affected  her  very  much.  She  could  not  con- 
trol her  ]egs.  I  moved  her  around  the  shop,  soaked 
her  feet,  and  washed  her  legs  and  shoulders  with  warm 
water.  While  she  stood  witli  her  feet  in  the  tub,  1 
held  m}^  leg  in  front  of  hers  houi's  at  a  time,  and 
tnpped  her  on  her  hind  parts  to  get  her  on  her  base. 
If  the  time  h.ad  been  kept,  it  would  have  amounted  to 
a   month  that  I  spent  night  and  day  on   this  mare. 


THE  horse's  rescue.  167 

When  I  was  in  my  shop  shoeing  this  mare  was  there. 
My  little  boy  helped  me.  He  could  wash  her  legs 
and  move  her  around.  I  had  other  horses  to  take 
care  of  at  tl'is  tinie.  I  woi'ked  on  her  in  the  stable 
cold  winter   niiihts,  and  exercised  her   ni«^hts   for  six 

ill  o 

montlis  when  all  were  asleep.  After  I  had  spread  her 
feet  the  first  time  she  was  so  bad  I  did  n^t  show  hei". 
She  could  not  stand  on  three  feet  while  I  packed  ihe 
other  one,  but  would  come  down  on  her  knees,  I  kept 
her  feet  soft.  In  a  few  davs  she  could  stand  up  quite 
well,  though  one  foot  kept  lame  about  ten  days.  The 
shoulders  were  so  deformed,  and  had  been  so  so  long, 
that  it  seemed  impossible  for  them  ever  to  come  back 
to  their  natural  place.  This  was  the  cause  of  my  hav- 
incr  so  much  work  to  do  to  f>"et  her  there,  but  she  could 
not  stay.  I  pulled  her  neck  on  to}),  rubbed  and 
pulled  the  skim  on  her  shoulders,  *and  washed  them 
in  warm  water;  the  fact  is,  I  was  in  the  barn  nights 
with  tliis  horse  and  others,  or  on  tlie  I'oad  driving  them 
more  than  half  of  the  time  that  winter.  j\[y  wife  told 
me  one  night  that  I  was  a  fool.  I  did  not  quarrel 
with  her,  for  I  had  had  some  serious  thoughts  en  the 
subject  myself.  I  was  losing  many  nights'  rest,  and 
obtaining  no  reward.  I  was  buying  feed  to  keep 
other  people's  horses,  and  curing  them  for  nothing. 
"When  looking  at  it  in  this  light,  it  did  not  look  veiy 
promising.  They  could  not  read  m^^y  thoughts.  I  was 
determined  to  excel  as  a  worker  on  the  horse's  feet, 
and  fit  myself  for  a  teacher;  and  before  I  can  insti'uct, 
said  I  to  mvself,  I  must  know  somethiniy  to  teach. 

This  old  mare  was  to   be  my   last  experiment.     I 
could  not  expand  her  feet  enough  at  one  time  to  let 


168  THE   horse's  RESCUE. 

the  sole  down  to  its  natural  place.  It  bad  to  be  done 
by  degrees  and  without  taking  off  the  shoes.  At  the 
second  change  I  spread  her  feet  three-eights  of  an  inch. 
This  did  not  effect  her  as  much  as  the  first.  It  made 
her  lame  on  the  same  foot  as  it  had  at  the  former 
change,  but  in  about  ten  days  she  recovered  from  that, 
and  begun  to  have  knee  action  and  stay  on  her  base 
better.  This  was  encouraging.  This  was  a  light 
mare  ;  her  weight  did  not  seem  to  hold  the  sole  down : 
it  was  inclined  to  go  back.  It  had  been  that  way  so 
long  that  a  little  raise  would  effect  her.  If  she  could 
have  been  put  to  drawing  loads  it  would  have  helped 
to  draw  her  shoulders  back  to  their  natural  place  and 
kept  the  sole  down,  and  she  w^ould  have  got  out  of  her 
trouble  in  half  of  the  time.  That  I  knew,  but  I  had 
no  such  w^ork  for  her  to  do.  This  hor.se  must  have 
good  care,  and  if  I  did  it  myself  I  would  know  it  w^as 
done.  I  fed  her  fine  middlings.  She  was  old,  and  in 
order  to  cure  she  must  thrive  and  grow  fat.  The  skin 
around  her  shoulders  must  be  got  loose  and  filled  up 
underneath  with  fat.  Withal,  it  is  some  work  to  lim- 
ber up  such  cases  as  this. 

While  I  was  working,  on  this  horse's  shoulders 
George  Wpodrough  came  up.     He  sa js : 

"Poan,  why  don't  you  use  some  linimeats  on  her 
shoulders?     It  might  help  you." 

"Yes,"  I  replied,  "  if  might,  but  I  would  not  put 
any  on  her  for  twenty-five  dollars.  If  I  should  I  would 
only  have  to  go  through  all  of  this  work  again.  I  am 
experimenting  on  this  thing  to  see  if  this  trash  has 
any  curing  properties  in  it.  I  am  well  convinced  it 
has  not.  and  have  b^en  for  many  years  ;  and  I  am  go- 


THE    HORSK's    liESCUE.  169 

incr  to  know,  by  reducing  this  wbole  complicated  busi- 
ness to  demonstrated  fact  for  myself,  then  I  shall 
know  when  this  is  done.  If  it  proves  as  I  think  it 
will,  I  will  salt  that  down  as  knowlege.  There  is  no 
knowledge  in  opinions  and  beliefs  for  me,  especially 
what  others  believe." 

After  working  on  this  mare  about  four  week^;  I  took 
ojff    her   shoes  and   cupped   the   feet  out    and   pared 
them  down  some.     They  were  then  narrower  than  the 
shoe,    I  closed  the  shoe,  and  nailed  it  on.    This  mare's 
feet  were  kept  soft  all  of  the  time — spread  next  time 
half  an  inch;  that  let  the  sole  down,  or  I  thought  it 
ought  to,  nearly  flat     It  did  not  come  down  to  suit 
me.     This  was  in  the  day  time.     The  horse  must  be 
moved  around  ;  this  sole   must  be  got  down   in  some 
way,  soon  after  spreading,  or  it  will  play  mischief.     It 
must  all  work  together  in  harmony.     I  led  her  out  of 
the   business  part  of  the  town.     Her  movement  was 
bad.     After  I  got  well  out  of  the  business  part  of  the 
town  I  got  on  her  to  ride,  not  for  pleasure,  but  to  add 
weight,  so  as  to  settle  the  sole  down.     After  riding  in 
thi^  way  for  some  time,  I  would  get  off  and  look  to 
see  how  this  plan  was  working.     It  was  going  down 
all  riglit     It  was  rather  hard  work  for  me,  worse.  I 
thought,  than  riding  on  a  rail.     1  hurried  her  up,  but 
she  could  neither  trot  nor  run,  and  did  not  seem  to 
have  any  gait,  but  all  kinds  of  gaits  tangled  up  to- 
gether.    While  going  through   thi^  exercise  I  passed 
some  laborers   that  worked  in  the  brick-yard,  some 
white  men,  some  black.     They  were  loading  a  boat 
witb   brick.     They   hooted  at  me,   and  swung   their 
hats,  which  did  not  affect  me  any.     I  knew  as  well  as 


170  THE  horse's  rescue. 

ttey  did  what  kind  of  an  appearance  1  made.  I  knew 
what  I  was  trying  to  do,  and  they  did  not.  I  well 
knew  what  thej  would  be,  some  of  them,  after  pay 
da3^  They  could  wheel  brick  after  others  liad  made 
them  by  having  a  man  to  superintend  the  work. 

This  mare  for  four  months  after  this  was  not  mucli 
seen  in  the  streets  in  the  day  time,  not  that  I  cared  for 
what  I  was  surrounded  with,  but  I  had  to  work  in  my 
shop  during  the  day  to  get  money  to  live  on,  and  work 
on  the  horse  nights.  I  do  not  wish  you  to  understand 
I  did  not  sleep  any.  My  rest  was  not  long  at  one 
time.  My  mind  was  so  fixed  on  this  job  I  could  not 
sleep  much.  All  hands  were  watching  this  old  mare, 
and  I  could  not  tell  how  it  was  coming  out  myself. 
This  last  spread  let  up  on  the  mare,  and  she  stood  her 
fore  legs  back  of  straight.  She  was  lame  on  one  foot 
the  same,  and  al)out  the  same  length  of  time.  After 
having  got  this  mare  on  her  base,  reader,  it  will  be  well 
to  look  her  over  and  see  the  condition  her  shoulders 
are  in.  They  look  enlarged  around  and  at  the  point  of 
the  shoulder,  caused  by  the  shoulders  being  shrunken 
above.  Let  us  look  and  see  if  her  shoulders  are  al?ke. 
The  side  that  she  was  lame  on  when  I  bought  her,  and 
lame  ever}''  time  I  spread  her  foot,  is  many  degrees  the 
worst.     She  is  crooked. 

Header,  do  you  want  me  to  tell  you  my  thoughts 
when  I  first  saw  this?  I  had  not  seen  it  before,  as  the 
deformity  did  not  show  until  I  got  her  well  back  on 
her  base.  I  knew  her  shoulders  were  deformed,  but  I 
did  not  think  one  side  was  so  much  worse  than  the 
other.  I  said  to  myself — for  I  was  alone — "  The  cake 
is  all  dough  ;  these  shoulders  will  never  be  mates,  that 


THE    horse's    rescue.  171 

is  certain.  If  this  old  mare  was  back  in  some  swamp 
dead  I  would  give  twenty-five  dollars.  I  guess  I  have 
come  out  of  my  bole  too  far  this  time.  They  have 
got  the  whip  row  on  me  now,  certainly.  Well,  the 
world  is  as  big  as  it  ever  was,  and  I  have  got  lots  of 
time  yet,  and  if  I  fail  I  can  move  to  another  place. 
If  the  m.are  is  crooked,  she  is  not  lame ;  and  she 
stands  up  good  on  her  legs  and  has  got  good  knee  ac- 
tion. I  will  spend  five  months  on  her  A'et.  If  she 
never  gets  well  and  straight,  the  principle  is  i-ight- 
Reader,  there  are  all  degrees  of  deformed  shoulders, 
and  they  are  not  always  deformed  in  pairs.  It  is  seen 
only  by  men  of  practical  and  experimental  knowledge 
unless  they  become  very  bad.  Tliey  ai-e  all  caused, 
or  nearly  so,  hy  ironing  the  feet.  These  degrees  of 
deformity  of  the  shoulders  are  regulated  by  the  de- 
grees of  contraction  of  the  feet.  Expansion,  that  is, 
settling  down  below  flat,  does  not  effect  much.  If  the 
horse  is  balanced  up  between  contraction  and  lever- 
age the  shoulder  is  affected.  If  his  feet  are  not  con- 
tracted alike,  his  shoulders  are  not  affected  alike.  You 
cannot  iron  a  cup-foot  horse  and  nail  on  his  shoes  as 
it  is  usually  done  without  these  changes  taking  place. 
In  the  fore  part  of  this  work  I  left  two  horse.s.  The 
first  was  badly  thrown  off  his  base  by  contraction  on 
all  his  legs.  When,  as  a  boy,  I  first  commenced 
working  on  the  hoise,  for  several  years  I  did  not 
know  that  cutting  the  heels  too  low  and  leaving  the 
toe  too  long  would  throw  the  horse  off  his  base  as  this 
horse  is  if  no  contraction  had  taken  place.  I  was  not 
alone  in  this  ignorance  in  that  day,  and  as  far  as  I  can 
see,  nearly  all  are  as  ignorant  now  of  this  simple  fact 


172  THE  hobse's  rescue. 

as  they  were  thirty-five  years  ago.  I  just  saw  one 
pass,  with  a  man  on  his  back,  so  stiff  from  this  cause 
that  he  could  hardly  go  ;  completely  off  hi«  base  ;  back 
settled  down,  and  in  no  shape  to  hold  up  weight.  I 
should  think  this  man,  by  his  looks,  would  weigh 
about  two  hundred  pounds.  His  knowledge  of  the 
horse  must  be  very  slight.  Horses  thrown  off  their 
base  in  this  way,  and  worked  for  many  years,  or  even 
if  they  are  not  worked,  get  in  the  same  fix  as  this  old 
white  mare  I  am  working  on  now,  and  from  the  same 
cause,  contraction  and  leverage,  which  become  chronic 
and  seated,  and  the  longer  standing  the  harder  to 
change  back. 

Let  us  look  at  the  hind  legs  of  this  horse.  It  has 
been  a  long  time  since  I  have  seen  him.  He  was 
young  when  I  left  him,  and  is  well  along  in  years  now. 
He  has  two  spavins.  They  are  called  by  the  veterina- 
rians and  professors  of  great  wisdom  of  the  horse, 
"  blood  "  or  "bog"  spavins.  These  doctors  tell  about 
curing  these  spavins.  They  burn,  blister,  and  daub 
on  all  kinds  of  trash,  and  charge  for  doing  it,  and  yet 
the  horse  is  lame  and  so  stiff  I  can  hardly  raise  his 
feet  from  the  floor  to  shoe  him,  it  hurts  him  so.  He 
cannot  bend  his  leg,  and  I  have  many  times  been 
obliged  to  raise  the  whole  hind  parts  of  these  cured 
spavined  horses  clear  from  the  floor  before  they  could 
stand,  and  yet  they  were  all  cured.  They  did  not 
limp  because  they  were  stiff  and  lame  in  both  legs. 
Let  us  see  if  we  can  trace  from  cause  to  effect  and  see 
what  we  can  find.  All  horsemen  and  thinking  men 
will  and  do  allow  that  what  is  called  spavin  is  caused 
by  a  strain  or  sprain  in  some  way,  and  that  is  what  I 


THB3   HOESE'S   RESCUE.  173 

think  myself.     A  horse  may  slip  and  injure  himself 
running  or  playing,  and  there  are  many  that  do.    I  will 
say  right  here  that  there  are  more  horses  sprained  by 
contraction  and  leverage  than  all  other  causes  put  to- 
gether.    When  horses  are   thrown  off  their  base,  as 
this  horse   is,  by  contraction,  it  lengthens   the   lever 
very  long.     When  a  horse  has  to  rise  over  that  lever, 
draw  a  load,  and  hold  up  two-thirds  of  his  weight  all 
of  the  time,  and  w^hen  standing  or  drawing,  he  is  in  no 
position  to  hold  up  this  weight.     I  should  think  there 
was  danger  of  straining  thegambrel  joints.     Horses  in 
this  condition  you  cannot  go  amiss  of  if  you  will  look 
at  them.      They  are  in  all  degrees  of  change  from 
natural.    What  is  the  condition  of  these  horses,  if  they 
lie  down,  when  they  want  to  rise?     The  horse  always 
rises  up  on  his  forward  legs  first.     Then  he  comes  up 
on  his  hind  legs  wdth  a  spring-like  motion.     The  more 
these  horses  are  thrown  off  their  base,  no  matter  from 
what  cause,  the  more  the  strain  on  the  gam.brel  joints 
in  rising.     It  is  in  many  ways  a  strain  on  these  horses 
to  rise.     The  kidneys  are  strained ;  in  fact,  it  strains 
the  horse  all  over. 

Now,  quacks,  come  on  with  your  firing,  blistering 
trash  and  cure  these  spavined  horses,  or  any  other, 
without  removing  the  cause,  if  you  can,  with  tw^o- 
thirds  of  his  weight  on  these  crippled  legs.  All  you 
can  do,  or  ever  have  done  in  this  Jine,  is  to  torture  the 
already  suffering  horse,  and  there  has  been  a  great 
amount  of  that  done  all  over  the  land,  and  no  good 
result  derived  from  it  for  either  the  horse  or  its  owner. 
This  I  have  known  for  many  years. 

Let  us  look  the  ringbone  over  a  little.     I  have  seen 


174  THE  horse's  rescue. 

one  colt  in  my  life,  I  think,  that  was  foaled  with  what 
is  called  ringbone.  I  did  not  see  this  colt  until  he  was 
about  four  months  old.  The  mother  had  ringbone  on 
both  forward  feet.  I  was  looking  at  this  colt.  I 
thought  I  could  see  a  little  enlargement  around  the 
top  of  the  wall.  It  did  not  look  quite  ]-ight  to  me.  I 
watched  him.  At  about  eight  months  he  began  to 
show  signs  of  trouble  in  his  forward  feet.  When  he 
traveled  over  frozen  ground  I  could  see  it  hurt  him. 
At  one  year  old  he  was  lame  in  one  foot.  With  all  of 
my  study  of  the  horse  this  is  the  only  case  of  this 
kind  I  ever  saw.  I  think  nine-tenths  of  the  ringbones 
are  the  result  of  irritation  caused  by  contraction  and 
leverage.  To  raise  over  the  lever  irritates  badly  where 
the  ringbone  has  its  rise.  I  have  experimented  on 
these  in  this  way  by  shortening  the  lever  and  giving 
easy  toe  to  raise  on.  They  would  go  better  as  long  as 
the  cause  of  the  irritation  was  kept  removed.  I  never 
meddled  with  their  feet  spreading.  I  never  have  seen 
one  cured.  I  have  seen  lots  of  men  torturing  them 
and  watching  the  result,  and  have  had  as  good  oppor- 
tunities as  any  man.  I  have  lived  with  horses  all  of 
my  life,  and  been  straddle  of  their  legs,  or  had  their 
feet  on  me  in  some  way  (and  sometimes  they  were  on 
my  head),  and  their  teeth,  too.  I  have  had  these  ring- 
bone curers  come  into  my  shop  to  heat  up  their  irons. 
They  would  have  several  kinds,  which  they  would 
heat  red-hot ;  kept  some  in  the  fire  heating  all  of  the 
time,  so  as  to  keep  this  red-hot  business  of  torturing 
the  horse  a-going  fast.  I  have  seen  this  done  on  ring- 
bone horses,  when  the  cause  of  their  worst  trouble  was 
that  the  toe  of  the  foot  was  one  inch  too  long,  and  had 


THE  horse's  rescue.  175 

shoes  on  at  that.  These  horses  can  never  recover 
from  their  lameness  with  this  lever  on  the  toe,  and 
growing  longer  all  the  time,  and  the  foot  made  still 
sorer  by  the  most  barbarous  treatment  a  man  ever  wit- 
nessed—that  of  burning.  Horses  treated  in  this  way- 
would  be  disabled  for  six  months  at  least.  I  have 
watched  the  result  of  this  butchery,  and  have  seen  no 
cure  and  no  relief.  Keader,  do  you  want  to  know  bow 
I  look  on  these  burners  of  horses?  They  put  me  in 
mind,  when  I  see  them  at  work  on  the  horse,  of  the 
wild  and  uncivilized  savages  tattooing  themselves  and 
each  other  by  burning  and  disfiguring  their  own  bodies ; 
and  yet  these  fine-feeling  men  have  threatened  me  and 
my  brothers,  J.  J.  and  Oliver  Doan,  with  prosecution 
for  crueltv  to  animals.  What  innocent  and  sympa- 
thetic  barbarians  these  men  are ! 

This  horse  I  have  been  writing  about  in  the  fore 
part  of  this  work  is  not  yet  as  bad  as  he  can  be  made. 
I  may  get  around  and  see  him  again.  I  have  many 
horses  to  watch,  many  miles  apart,  and  some  hundreds 
of  miles  This  watching  has  been  kept  up  all  my  life. 
Let  us  go  back  and  look  at  this  second^  horse,  which  I 
left  in  this  work — the  one  T  had  such  a  hard  time  bal- 
ancing up  between  contraction  and  leverage.  It  has 
been  some  time  since  I  have  seen  him.  His  knees  and 
ankles  were  straight  when  I  shod  him.  He  is  now 
tipped  on  knee  and  ankle  on  both  his  forward  legs;, 
both  ankles  behind  are  crooked.  His  head  is  down  ; 
ankles  swollen  all  around ;  cords  seem  to  be  thickened 
up;  he  looks  bad.  Poor  horse,  they  have  got  you  in 
a  bad  fix.  I  suppose  the  reader  will  want  me  to  tell 
the  cause  of  this  horse's  trouble,  and  the  way  out  of 


176  THE  horse's  rescue. 

it.  That  I  can  do.  I  understand  this  whole  business. 
As  complicated  as  it  may  appear  to  you,  it  is  as  easy 
for  me  now  to  tell  you  the  cause  that  threw  this  liorse 
in  this  position,  and  the  principle  to  work  on  to  get  him 
out  of  this  fix,  as  it  is  for  you  to  pick  up  a  basket  of 
chips;  but  to  get  him  out  of  it  is  quite  another  thing. 
It  is  a  hard  job,  and  yet  it  can  be  done.  I  have 
learned  something  since  I  balanced  this  horse.  That 
was  the  best  I  could  do  with  the  cup  foot  at  that  time 
on  him  and  all  others.  I  have  novv^  got  to  hj  master 
of  the  horse's  foot.  I  can  do  as  I  like  with  it.  I  can 
expand  the  foot  on  the  right  principle.  Contraction 
is  the  great  cause  of  this  horse's  first  trouble.  Then 
to  divide  between  contraction  and  levernge,  the  best 
that  could  be  done  at  the  time  when  I  shod  him  last. 
He  has  been  shod  many  times  since,  and  they  have 
left  him  too  high  on  the  heels  by  not  dressing  his  feet 
properly,  or  the  fault  is  in  the  shoe  partly;  in  both 
perhaps.  They  have  thrown  him  forward  off  his  base 
by  this  work,  and  he  has  been  so  so  long  it  will  be  a 
hard  job  to  change  him  back.  I  have  tackled  horses 
that  are  harder,  to  cure  than  this.  This  horse's  shoul- 
ders are  not  half  as  bad  as  they  would  have  been  if 
he  had  not  been  balanced  up  in  this  way.  His  shoul- 
ders are  badly  out  of  harmony.  He  will  not  be 
as  bad  to  get  on  his  base.  The  way  to  go  to  work  is 
at  the  feet.  This  cannot  be  done  at  once  ;  it  will  take 
time.  It  will  have  to  be  done  by  degrees,  the  same 
way  I  am  working  on  this  old  gray  mare  ;  but  he  is 
difTerent.  She  is  thrown  back  off  her  base;  he  is 
thrown  forward.  He  has  more  ailments  than  she. 
His  knees  and  ankles  have  all  gone  forward,  and  yet 


TjiE  horse's  rescue.  177 

with  all  he  has  had  done  to  him,  the  first  cau^e  has  not 
been  removed.  This  horse  is  the  on 5  that  liad  £o  much 
experimenting  done  on  him,  and  still  he  is  alive  ;  and 
to  the  first  cause  there  have  been  several  more  added. 
The  structure  of  the  feet  have  been  out  of  harmony 
all  this  time.  This  horse's  feet  and  legs  are  nearly 
paralyzed,  and  he  has  been  a  constant  sufferer  all  this 
time.  After  long-standing  cases  like  this  thei'e  is 
some  work  to  be  done  to  let  this  horse  down  at  the 
heels,  change  the  structure  of  the  foot  back,  and  put 
it  internally  in  harmony  of  action  ;  relax  the  cords  on 
all  four  legs,  and  equalize  his  weight  on  the  center  of 
each  foot,  and  balance  him  on  an  equilibrium  in  the 
center,  and  equalize  the  lever  in  length  on  all  four  feet, 
and  equalize  the  weight  on  the  eight  separate  heels  so 
as  to  cause  him  to  travel  on  a  straight  line  ;  and  yet 
this  can  be  done,  so  much  so,  that  it  would  be  hard 
for  the  closest  observers  to  tell  where  the  defect  is  if 
there  is  any.  There  are  many  cases  that  are  past  cure. 
They  can  all,  or  nearly  all,  be  helped.  Old  horses  are 
not  worth  curing.  They  are  never  as  good  as  they 
would  have  been  if  they  had  not  been  in  this  condi- 
tion. Young  horses  are  easier  to  change  back,  and  are 
as  good  as  ever.  This  poor  horse  is  the  final  result  of 
thousands  and  millions  on  the  globe.  There  is  no  use 
describing  the  process  of  curing  him.  The  same 
method  by  which  I  cured  the  dapple-brown  called 
Mike  cures  all  the  troubles  they  are  thrown  in  that  I 
have  laid  cown  in  this  book.  I  never  tried  to  cure 
bog  or  blood  spavin  by  throwing  the  unequal  weight 
o2  their  legs  or  removing  the  unnatural  strain  to  see 
what  the  cfiect  would  be.     I  considered  them  incur- 


178  THE  horse's  rescue. 

able,  and  do  jet.  I  will  leave  that  for  some  more  sci- 
entific man  than  I  am  to  test.  I  shall  spend  my  time 
in  introducing  what'  I  know.  The  horse  cannot  be 
cured  or  the  cause  of  this  trouble  removed  while  he  is 
standing  in  the  stable.  After  the  change  he  must 
draw  loads,  and  that  will  draw  him  back  on  his  base 
by  degrees.  The  first  change  will  eSect  him  very 
much,  and  he  should  be  helped  by  washing  and  rub- 
bing his  legs  in  water  as  \^arm  as  he  can  bear,  and  keep 
it  up.  Do  not  get  tired;  if  you  do,  you  will  never 
curs  any  stiff  horses.  This  is  the  only  way  they  can 
be  cured.  The  effect  doctors  can  sometimes  find  the 
effect  when  it  gets  very  bad.  That  is  a  little  of  the 
effect  to  tinker  at.  They  have  a  good  long  list  of 
names  for  the  effects,  many  of  which  have  no  mean- 
ing, or,  if  they  have,  it  does  not  remove  the  cause  that 
produces  the  effect.  I  have  had  many  of  thege  fel- 
lows gather  around  me,  trying  to  put  me  through  an 
examination,  asking  me  what  I  was  going  to  do  in 
cases  of  ossified  cartilage  and  navicular  disease.  Poor 
fools  !  what  can  they  do?  They  have  dissected  some 
dead  horse's  feet,  and  found  that  this  or  that  had  taken 
place  ;  and  this  trouble  had  shortened  the  horse's  life, 
and  in  many  cases  caused  his  death  by  the  suffering  he 
was  obliged  to  endure  frcm  being  out  of  harmony  in 
many  ways  internally  and  externally.  I  would  ask 
these  wonderful  talkers.  What  help  is  it  to  the  live 
horse  in  this  same  suffering  condition  that  you  are 
able  to  tell  what  ailed  these  dead  horses  ?  They  can 
see  no  farther  inside  these  horses'  feet  than  I  can  to 
tell  what  condition  it  is  in.  All  they  can  do  is  to 
open  them  after  theliorseis  dead.    I  can  make  them  as 


THE  hokse's  rescue.  179 

they  were  when  thev  were  colt's  feet.  If  they  have 
been  contracted  very  bad,  so  as  to  cause  ossification, 
expanding  lets  the  body  come  back  on  the  base  and 
helps  in  many  ways  that  they  have  never  seen,  and 
which  I  think  some  never  will  see.  They  have  so 
much  talking  to  do  they  can  spend  no  time  to  learn 
this  great  science,  and  that  is  not  all ;  they  will  have 
to  take  as  much  as  two  lessons  before  they  will  be 
able  to  teach.  I  use  no  medicine,  and  work  on  the 
feet,  the  cause  of  all  this  trouble,  and  cure  ;  they  work 
all  over  the  horse,  and  useall  kinds  of  liniments,  blis- 
terins,  and  butchering,  and  the  horse  goes  on  from 
bad  to  worse,  and  no  cure  is  effected. 

After  I  get  the  colt's  foot  on  in  shape,  and  all  in 
harmony  of  action,  and  keep  it  so  or  nearly  so,  and 
nature  does  not  repair  the  damages  caused  by  contrac- 
tion, then  I  think  there  is  some  trouble  inside  that  na- 
ture cannot  help.  I  never  applied  this  principle  on 
any  horse  that  I  did  not  help,  and  wonderfully,  too. 
"When  I  quit  one  of  these  horses  the  effect  doctors 
need  not  take  the  job  of  curing.  Their  medicine  is 
useless  trash,  and  their  butchery  is  worse.  If  I  can 
do  this  as  I  state,  that  is  proof  enough. 

I  read  a  small  piece  in  a  paper  about  ten  years  since, 
written  many  years  ago  by  Dr.  Gangees,  on  the  horse's 
feet.  They  had  been  held,  he  said,  from  growing  nat- 
ural by  ironing.  That  was  all  he  could  say  about  it. 
He  knew  nothing  of  the  effect  it  produced.  They  had 
been  elongated.  He  was  an  Englishman.  Here  are 
some  sayings  of  a  horse-shoer,  also  an  Englishman, 
who  wrote  a  book  in  1700.  His  name  was  William 
Osmer.     He  was  a  practical  horse-shoer.     They  had 


180  THE    HORSE'p    rescue. 

Stiff  and  lame  horses  in  his  day.  They  called  stiff 
horses  "  shook  in  the  shoulders.'^  He  said  in  his  writ- 
ings that  the  people  were  "shook  in  the  head,"  and  I 
think  he  was  right;  and  that  saying  holds  good 3'et. 
He  said,  too,  that  the  cause  was  in  the  feet,  but  be 
could  not  get  them  out  of  their  trouble.  The  English 
have  spent  as  much  money  experimenting  on  horses' 
feet  as  any  nation  on  the  globe,  without  doubt. 
There  are  many  things  to  look  to  at  the  same  time; 
and  in  changing  these  horses  all  must  work  in  har- 
mony. The  cause  of  failures  in  the  spreading  of 
horses'  feet  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  men  who  have 
attempted  to  do  the  work  could  see  but  one  thing  at 
one  time,  and  that  one  thing  they  did  not  see  as  they 
should.     It  is  very  simple  when  understood. 

My  experience  and  trjnng  to  introduce  this  science 
convinces  me  that  Robert  G.  Ingersoll's  lecture  on  the 
"Skulls"  is  the  soundest  lecture  I  ever  read  or  lieard. 
Bob  did  not  mean  to  say  that  the  skulls  had  any  knowl- 
edge in  them  ;  he  meant  that  the  brains-  that  were  in- 
side of  the  skulls  were  what  did  the  business.  He 
said  in  this  lecture,  at  the  first  start,  "  Man  advances 
just  in  the  proportion  that  he  mingles  his  thoughts 
with  his  labor. ^'  There  is  more  sense  conveyed  in 
these  few  words  than  whole  volumes  written  by  some 
that  are  dogging  on  his  track. 

That  is  the  way  this  work  was  perfected — mingling 
thoughts  with  labor  for  forty-one  years ;  and  I  have 
had  lots  of  dogs  at  my  heels,  but  I  never  felt  I  was  in 
danger.  It  is  queer  ;  some  folks  will  not  no  anything 
themselves  nor  let  anyone  else  if  they  can  prevent  it. 
What  a  lot  of  trouble  they  do  have  I 


THE  horse's   rescue  181 

I  had  to  tack  ship  sometimes  in  this  horse  sail. 
Those  that  were  with  me  sometimes,  blowing  their 
bugles  for  me,  would  change  their  tunes  and  .blow  the 
other  way.  Then  I  would  be  obliged  to  tack  ship.  It 
is  queer,  when  you  think  this  matter  over,  how  quick 
a  man  can  change  a  tune  on  his  bugle  after  he  gets 
used  to  blowing  it  In  order  to  understand  these  sud. 
den  changes  on  these  bugles  you  must  ti-ace  from  the 
change  to  the  cause  of  the  change.  These  changes 
are  constantly  taking  place  in  all  things. 

About  the  first  stable  of  horses  I   tackled  was  Mot 
Bennett's,  in   Horseheads — not  the   hotel   keeper,  but 
his  uncle.     He  was   carrying   on  a  heavy  business  at 
that  time  in   many  ways.     He  was  building  railroads; 
he  was  opening  an  avenue  six  miles  long  to  connect 
two  towns;  he  kept  a  large  lumber  yard  and  sawmill ; 
he  had  all  kinds  of  machinery  connected  with  tliis  to 
get  out  brackets,  cornices  for  buildings  ;  in  fact,  en- 
tirely too  much  for  any  man  to  carry.    He  had  lots  for 
sale  on  this  avenue.     He  gave  employment  to  a  large 
number  of  men  that  wanted  work.    But  times  changed 
on  Mot.     He  bucked  at  it  hard  to  keep  it  going,  but  it 
was  no  go'j  it  balanced  over  the  wrong  way  for  him. 
Men  that  he  Ijad  paid  thousands  of  dollars  v.ould  not 
lake  his  promises   to  pay  written  on  paper  nuy  more. 
I  shod  Mot's  horses  through  these  trying  time.     It  was 
all  charged  on  the  book,  and  the  amount  was  about 
forty  dollars.     I  well  knew  I  would  stand  no  chance 
to  get  my  pay.     The  big  fish  always  eat   up  llie  little 
ones.     I  took  my  pay  in  an  old  wagon  at  about  three 
prices,  and  let  it  go  at  that.     Poor  Mot,  I  liked   him. 
He  was  a  whole-souled  fellow,  but  he  was  carrying  too 


182  THE  hokse's  rescue. 

heavy  a  load.     He  came  home  from  his  hard  day's 
work  over  taxed,  and  sat  down  in  his  chair,  his  speech 
lost.     In  a  few  days  Mot  passed  away.     Some  time  be- 
fore iLIh  I  was  talking  horse  in  the  streets.     Mot  said 
to  me,  '"You  had  better  go  to  work."     This  remark, 
coming  fj-om    bim,  rather  shocked  me.     I   thought  of 
his  horses  that  I  liad  been  caring  for,  and  the  one  that 
I  pulled  out  of  the  stiaw — that  four  hundred  dollar 
horse;   besides,  at   that   time  I  was  doing   more  hard 
work  and  working  m.ore  hours   than  any  two  men  in 
that  town.      Eighteen  hours  a  day  and  night  were  put 
in  ;  the  fact  is,  I  was  nearly   used  up.      The  cripples 
kept  increasing  on  me.     I  was  over- worked,  and  I  was 
obliged  to  send  some  away,  and  I  di'opped  Mot's  horses. 
Monev  I  must  have  to  live  on,  and  to  buv  feed  for 
these  horses  that  I  was  experimenting  on,  or  I  should 
fail.     This  caused  his  bugle  to  change,  but  the  blast 
did  not  blow  me  oK  my  base.     I  was  likely  to  lose  all 
of  my  friends  in  this  town.      Some  fought  me  for  cur- 
ing and  some  for  not  curing  their  horses  and  keeping 
them    cured.     The  whole  business   seemed  likely   to 
turn  against  me.     I  made  up  my  mind  I  would  switch 
off  awhile  and  rest  up.     I  was  about  whipped  in  this 
horse  fight.     I   went   to  my   shop,  threw  both   doors 
open,  got  a  shoe-keg  and  set  it  near  the  door,  took  some 
papers  and  books  and  commenced  to  read.     I  did  not 
read  much  ;  I  did  not  get  a  chance.     New  customers 
kept  coming  all  of  the  time  to  crowd  out  the  old  ones. 
I  could  not  do  all   of  this   hard   work.      They  would 
come  an  go.     None  of  these  men   stayed  with  me  all 
of  the  time      They  did  not  come   to  my  shop  except 
occasionallv.     There  was  not  one  man  in  the  lot  that 


THE   horse's   RESCUE.  183 

knew  how  much  work  I  was  doing,  and  I  came  to  this 
conclusion  :  It  was  none  of  their  business  if  I  take  a 
rest.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  clear  away  some  of  this 
racket.  The  horses  commenced  to  come.  I  sent  them 
all  away.     I  was  asked  : 

"Are  you  not  going  to  shoe  any  more  horses?" 
"Not  at  present." 

Some  would  ask:  "How  are  you  going  to  live? 
You  live,  don't  vou  ?" 

"  Yes  ;  I  can  live  anywhere  you  can.  There  are 
plenty  of  shops  in  this  town  where  you  can  get  your 
shoeing  done." 

I  sat  on  that  keg  eveTy  week-day  for  two  weeks  and 
sent  all  away.  That  seemed  to  quiet  the  noise  for  a 
time.  Then  I  resumed  my  work.  The  horses  came, 
all  I  wanted  to  wrestle  with.'  I  had  bought  a  house 
and  six  village  lots  in  this  town.  The  street-cars  ran 
past  my  place.  They  run  from  Horseheads  to  Elmira. 
The  distance  is  six  miles,  and  that  was  the  main  wagon 
road.  At  the  time  I  lived  in  this  town  it  was  a  great 
thoroucrhfare.  Here  I  saw  some  of  the  worst  cruelty 
I  ever  witnessed  dealt  out  to  these  poor,  stiff  horses. 
It  was  all  I  could  do  to  keep  cool.  This  was  going  on 
daily,  and  Sundays  it  was  worse.  It  was  brutality  run 
mad,  made  so  by  rum. 

When  I  commenced  this  work  it  was  to  be  confined 
to  the  horse's  feet,  tracing  cause  to  effect  and  effect  to 
cause.  This  book  was  not  named  until  I  had  made 
quite  a  start  in  the  work,  and  as  it  is  called  "  The 
Horse's  Rescue,"  I  shall  have  to  meddle  a  little  with 
the  rum  question.  I  never  have  talked  much  on  that 
subject,  but  I  cannot  see  any  way  to  steer  on  my  course 


184  THE    HORSE'S   RESCUE. 

without  coming  in  contact  with  it.     I  have  heard  lots 
of  men    lecture  on   this  subject,  and  talk  about  the 
effect  of  rum  on  the  human  family,  and   I  have  seen 
the  effect  punished  while  the  cause  remained  undis- 
turbed.    In  all  of  these  lectures  I  ever  heard  or  read 
I  never  heard   one  word  sriid   in   defense  of  the  long- 
suffering  and  abused  horse  ;  and  as  I  am  come  to  their 
j-escue,  I  shall  work  all  the  field  I  can  to  accomplish  it. 
This  lecture  on    rum  is  to   show   that  it  affects  the 
horse  in  many  ways,  and  badly,  too,  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  I  have  been   over  some  of  it.     It  is  the 
same   in   all   placea,  some  worse   than   others.     I  will 
give  you  a  little  sketch  of  thi^wholesale  abuse  caused 
by  rum  in  this  God-serving  town  where  I  am  battling 
for  the  horse.     These   are  facts.     They  are  no   third 
hand  business.     It  was  a  common  thing  on  Sunday  for 
me  to  see  three  and  four  wagons  pass  my  house  at  one 
time,  going  from  Horseheads  to  Elmira,  four  in  the 
wagon,  one  horse  drawing  the  load,  and  he  stiff  and  so 
sore  on  his  feet — caused  by  ironing  his  feet  by  such  as 
are  whipping  and  pounding  him — that  he  could  hardly 
keep  on  his  balance;  all  swinging  their  hats  over  their 
heads  ;  one  plying  the  whip,  sometimes  a  club;  cross- 
ing and  rocrossing  this  street-car  track  every  ten  or 
fifteen  rods      Some  of  these  beings  called  human  were 
so  badly  off  their  base  they  could  not  sit  up  straight 
if  they  tried.     They  would  balance  over  in  all  shapes, 
some   forward,  some   backward.     Some    would    hang 
over  sideways,  and  they  were  constantly  changing,  all 
the  time  yelling  and  whooping ;  horses  going  as  fast  as 
they  could    be  made    to  go  in    their  deformed    con- 
dition.    This  could  be   seen,  passing  and  repassing  all 


THE    HORSES    RKSCUK  185 

days.  Sundays  with  me  part  of  the  day  was  spent 
fixing  up  my  patients,  the  horses,  making  them  as  com- 
fortable as  I  could.  The  shop  I  did  not  work  in  in 
this  place  ;  they  would  not  bring  any  work  on  that 
day,  so  I  got  a  little  rest  working  in  my  garden,  which 
is  no  labor  to  me  ;  it  is  enjoyment.  I  could  enjoy  my- 
self hoeing  and  weeding  in  my  garden  on  this  day  as 
well  as  anything  I  could  do,  if  it  had  not  been  for  this 
panorama  that  was  constantly  passing  ;  that  destroyed 
all.  It  was  very  annoying  to  me.  Of  all  the  damned 
sights  I  ever  saw,  these  are  the  worst  to  me.  I  use 
the  word  "  damned  "  because  it  suits  me  the  best  to 
convey  my  feelings.  Damned  means  condemned,  and, 
if  somebody  does  not  get  damned  for  abusing  tliese 
horses,  neither  of  these  two  words  has  any  meaning  at 
all.     I  think  the  damning  should  rest  on  the  cause. 

What  kind  of  compositions  these  poor,  duped  speci" 
mens  of  humanity  had  been  taking  into  their  stomachs 
I  know  not ;  they  did  not  seem  to  know  what  they 
were  doing,  neither  did  they  seem  to  see  where  they 
were  steering  to.  These  are  fit  subjects  to  have  the 
horse!  If  these  horses  were  balanced  in  the  center 
and  limber  there  would  be  some  brains  spilt.  One 
cripple  sailed  past  my  house,  after  crossing  and  recross- 
ing  this  track.  He  was  quite  a  sailer,  for  a  three- 
legged  horse,  for  one  was  not  of  much  use  except  to 
keep  him  from  tipping  over.  I  told  my  wife,  '"There 
will  be  a  shipwreck  soon  ;  that  craft  cannot  sail  long  in 
this  course  without  one."  In  a  few  days,  not  far  froni 
my  house,  this  wreck  took  place.  The  driver  had  been 
helped  into  his  wagon  ;  up-town  he  went,  steam  all 
up,  and  no  regulator.     This  two-legged,  perpendicular 


186  THE  horse's  rescue. 

machine  in  the  wagon  was  so  badly  ofi  his  balance 
that  it  fell  over  the  horizontal  machine — the  propell- 
ing power.  The  center  or  vital  part  was  all  in  mid- 
dling order,  so  much  so  that  it  was  danger^^ns  to  set  it 
in  motion  without  a  governor.  Somebody  started  it, 
and  down  it  came.  It  ran  wild.  Out  went  the  man 
headfirst,  struck  his  head  against  a  stone,  and  knocked 
his  brains  out.  This  horizontal  machine  kept  on  go- 
ing, and  if  there  had  been  three  or  four  more  in  this 
wagon  in  the  same  fix  the  first  was  in,  this  machine 
would  have  run  the  same  until  it  smashed  up  some 
more.  The  horse  smashed  up  at  his  stable.  This 
kind  of  steam  all  adds  greatly  to  the  suffering  of  the 
horse. 

One  Sunday,  while  working  in  my  garden,  there  had 
been  more  than  usual  of  this  kind  of  business  going 
on,  which  seemed  to  come  from  up-town.  There 
must  be  a  fountain,  it  occurred  to  me,  up  there  where 
all  this  corruption  has  its  rise.  It  all  seems  to  come 
from  one  source.  But  I  have  got  all  I  can  attend  to 
working  and  experimenting,  and  if  they  will  let  me 
alone  I  will  them.  I  can  onlv  fio^ht  on  the  defensive. 
There  are  too  many  balanced  over  the  wrong  way  for 
me  here.  I  shall,  in  order  to  carry  out  my  plans,  keep 
as  quiet  as  possible.  It  seems  to  be  going  rather 
smooth  now.  I  think  they  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  let  me  go  on  in  peace. 

After  hoeing  in  my  garden  all  day  Sunday  (I 
thought  it  was  Sunday,  and  others  told  me  it  was),  I 
asked  several  through  the  course  of  the  day,  and  my 
wife  said  it  was.  From  what  I  could  see  going  on  all 
around  me   I  could  not  tell.     To  look  at   the   day  it 


THE  horse's  rescue.  187 

seemed  like  all  others  to  me ;  and  I  am  so  forgetful  that 
if  there  had  not  been  somebody  to.tisk  I  should  have  lost 
track  of  this  day.  The  canal  was  close  to  mv  house, 
and  the  boats  and  street  cars  were  running.  This  was  a 
great  place  for  cars  in  this  valley.  I  could  hear  the 
locomotives  blowing  their  bugles,  and  the  music  came 
from  all  directions.  I  could  hear  them  many  miles 
away,  talking  with  each  other,  at  all  times  of  day  and 
night.  I  could  hear  and  see  this  without  stopping  my 
work. 

I  had  my  sleeves  rolled  up,  vest  and  coat  off.  It 
was  a  warm  day.  My  garden  was  quite  large.  There 
was  six  large  village  lots  all  in  one  garden.  It  lay 
close  to  this  great  thoroughfare.  The  Sunday  did 
seem  to  me  to  be  the  most  business  day  I  had  seen  in 
a  long  time.  All  seemed  to  be  in  motion — all  life  and 
action.  I  did  stop  and  rest  on  my  hoe  and  take  a 
telescopic  view  of  what  was  passing.  The  streets 
were  full  of  horses,  some  running,  some  trotting,  or 
trying  to ;  some  limping  at  one  end  and'  some  at 
both;  some  stiff;  in  fact,  they  were  in  all  stages  of 
deformity.  I  could  see  I  attracted  quite  a  little 
attention.  They  stared  at  me  ;  that  is,  some  did,  such 
as  had  sense  enough  left  to  do  this.  They  could  not 
stare  long  at  a  time.  If  they  did  they  would  be  in 
danger  of  a  smash-up.  There  were  lots  of  machines 
running  on  this  street  without  governors,  and  they  did 
not  always  run  on  a  straight  line.^  When  a  man  got 
on  this  road,  if  he  did  not  attend  strictly  to  business, 
tliere  was  danger  of  shipwreck.  Milk  wagons  were 
running  morning  and  evening;  some  selling  it  by  the 
quart  and  half  pint,  some  taking  it  to  the  creamery, 


188  THE  horse's  rescue. 

some  to  the  cheese  factory,  and  selling  it.  The  birds 
were  singing,  the  street  cars  were  making  extra  trips. 
They  left  Horseheads  every  fifteen  minutes  for  El- 
mira  ;  the  same  coming  to  Horseheads.  It  was  a  sorry 
day  for  these  poor,  crippled,  and  deformed  horses. 
Street  cars  off  the  track;  men  jerking  the  horses  on 
the  mouthy  jamming  them  back,  yelling,  ''Whoa, 
damn  you!"  every  half-minute,  the  horses  at  the  time 
standing  as  still  as  they  could.  Some  had  all  they 
coald  do  to  stand,  and  were  almost  ready  to  fall  over 
backward.  Some,  unable  to  stand,  did  fall,  and  yet 
they  were  obliged  to  do  extra  labor  on  this  day  called 
Sunday.  It  did  seem  to  me  they  were  all  let  loose  on 
these  poor  horses  this  day.  Some  of  them  were  run 
from  morning  until  morning  again. 

There  was  all  kinds  of  music,  pianos,  organs,  vio- 
lins, and  I  actually  heard  roosters  crow,  on  this  day, 
on  the  backside  of  my  lot.  I  saw  the  water  run  in 
the  creek.  I  did  not  see  it  stop  and  pile  up  in  heaps. 
There  were  fish  in  this  water,  and  they  were  constantly 
in  motion. 

Reader,  when  I  bought  this  place  I  intended  to  or- 
nament up  this  ground  and  fix  up  a  pleasant  home. 
There  was  a  large,  lively  stream  of  living,  sparkling 
water  on  the  backside.  When  I  bought  this  property 
I  thought  it  was  in  a  sightly  place.  In  this  I  was  not 
disappointed.  I  could  see  too  much,  and  the  sights 
did  not  suit  me.  I  saw  too  much  cruelty  and  abuse 
practiced  on  the  helpless  horse,  and  it  made  a  hell  for 
me.  I  gave  up  fixing  up  the  place,  and  this  was  the 
cause  of  my  moving. 

On  the  day  following  this  red-hot  day  of  abusing 


THE  horse's  rescue.  189 

tliese  deformed  horses  I  W9s  on  my  way  to  my  shop. 
Reader,  I  was  loaded  to  the  muzzle.  It  would  not 
take  much  to  touch  me  off.  I  was  the  horse's  sworn 
friend,  and  always  had  been  through  life.  Right  in 
front  of  Bob  Col  well's  place  of  business,  the  boss  of 
this  town  at  that  time,  I  met  Jack  Racker,  the  cat's- 
paw  general  of  all  the  dirty  work  that  was  to  be  done. 
He  said  to  me,  *'Doan,  they  are  going  for  you." 

''  What  have  I  been  doing  now,  and  who  is  '  they  ' 
this  time  ?" 

'' The  authorities  of  the  town." 

"  Bob  Colwell,  what  is  the  charges  ?" 

"  Well,  I  sat  up-stairs  in  my  house  writing  for  the 
paper,  and  I  could  see  you  hoeing  in  your  garden  all 
day.  They  are  going  to  arrest  you  for  violating  the 
Sunday  laws." 

"My,  my!  did  you  write  about  me?" 

"No." 

"  You  should  have  done  so ;  it  would  help  fill  up 
the  paper." 

"  I  told  them  you  would  be  the  first  man  up  here 
Monday  morning  after  working  all  day  Sunday  in 
your  garden." 

"  You  told  a  lie  ;  there  were  lots  of  folks  here  when 
I  came.     Jack,  what  do  you  think  it  will  cost  me?" 

'^I  can't  tell  you." 

"Tell  that  great  b'usiness  personage  'They,'  you 
quote  so  much,  that  I  will  pay  all  the  fine  they  can 
get  against  me,  and  I  will  double  it  if  they  will  let  me 
lay  it  out." 

"What  would  you  do  with  it?" 

"I  would  give  it  to  some  poor  widow  woman  that 


190  THE  horse's  rescue. 

was  trying  to  support  herself  and  her  children.  ISTot 
one  cent  will  I  ever  pay  to  any  authority  in  this  town 
or  in  any  other  for  the  use  of  this  day  you  call  Sun- 
da}^,  for  this  personage  3^ou  call  *  They '  to  convert  to 
his  or  their  own  use;  but  I  do  intend  to  have  a  lot  in- 
dicted before  the  grand  jury  for  violating  the  license 
law  on  all  days,  at  the  next  court,  if  they  do  not  stop 
drugging  these  poor  fools,  causing  them  to  kill  them- 
selves and  others,  and  misuse  and  kill  and  cause  to 
be  killed  their  helpless  horses,  and  endanger  innocent 
parties,  and  place  the  lives  of  children  and  all  living 
things  in  jeopardy.  And  this  is  not  all ;  it  is  very  an- 
noying to  me  when  I  am  at  work  on  Sunday.  If  it  is 
not  stopped  soon  I  shall  appeal  to  the  courts." 

This  lecture  was  delivered  in  front  of  the  ofSce  of 
the  boss  of  the  town.  Let  us  go  on  to  the  shop. 
There  will  be  a  lot  of  cripples  waiting.  That  racket 
is  stopped.     I  wonder  what  will  come  next. 

Reader,  I  suppose  you  want  to  know  how  the  old 
white  mare  gets  along.  It  has  been  four  weeks  since 
she  had  her  feet  spread.  The  same  shoes  have  been 
on  all  that  time.  She  has  been  driven  every  night  in 
some  by-road.  She  is  not  lame,  and  is  growing  fat — 
improving  slowly.  She  must  have  her  feet  dressed 
and  spread  again.  Her  feet  do  not  dry  up  now,  and 
there  is  not  much  fever  in  them.  I  cupped  out  her 
feet  and  pared  the  shell  properly  for  this  spreading 
operation.  It  is  the  same  proces  .  It  is  by  degrees  I 
am  doing  this.  It  could  not  be  done  on  this  mare  all 
at  once,  she  was  so  badly  rolled  up.  I  closed  up  the 
shoes,  nailed  them  on,  soaked  the  feet  soft,  and  spread 
them  one-quarter  of  an  inch  again.     That  let  the  sole 


.  THE    horse's    rescue.  191 

doT^vn  as  far  as  I  wanted  it.  In  all  I  have  spread  this 
mare's  feet  one  inch  and  three-eighths  at  different 
times,  and  yet  it  is  not  more  than  five-eighths  of  an 
inch  wider  than  it  was  before  I  spread  it  at  all.  Every 
time  I  spread  this  old  mare's  feet  it  threw  her  off  of 
her  base  on  both  feet  and  lamed  her  on  this  same  foot 
that  she  was  lamest  on  when  I  bought  her.  She  was 
lame  on  both,  and  had  been  for  many  years.  This 
time  she  was  not  so  lame  on  this  foot,  and  recovered 
sooner  from  the  effects  of  the  change.  As  she  pro- 
gressed toward  natural  by  degrees  she  was  easier  to 
get  on  her  base  ;  the  time  lessened,  and  the  effects  les- 
sened by  degrees  the  nearer  she  approached  natural. 
This  is  encouraging,  certainly.  She  does  improve 
slowly;  her  shoulders  are  not  mates;  she  is  very 
crooked  yet,  and  both  badly  deformed.  She  does  not 
look  like  the  same  horse  now  I  have  changed  her; 
this  is  certain,  and  the  cause  is  removed.  This  long- 
standing effect  around  these  shoulders  is  stubborn  and 
touo^h.  I  know  the  bones  are  not  broken  :  all  else 
will  yield  by  degrees,  but  it  must  be  slow.  It  has 
yielded  a  little  now  ;  and  if  it  has  yielded  a  little  it 
will  yield  a  little  more.  This  is  the  way  I  reasoned 
with  myself  in  the  cold  barn  many  cold  winter  nights 
while  others  were  sleeping  or  sitting  by  comfortable 
fires.  Days  I  v/as  in  my  shop  doing  all  I  could  to  re- 
lieve the  suffering  of  horses  for  the  same  men  that 
were  fighting  me  their  level  best  in  many  ways.  Some 
of  them  were  poor  dupes,  which  I  well  knew,  set  on 
and  made  so  by  a  jealous,  ignorant  set  of  pretenders  of 
great  knowledge  of  the  horse.  I  well  knew  I  could 
out  general  them  working  on  the  horse.     A  man  did 


192  THE  horse's  rescue.  , 

not  have  to  know  much  about  the  horse  in  this  town 
to  do  that.  In  this  town,  where  they  worried  so  much 
about  my  spending  my  money  and  so  much  time,  I 
was  obliged  to  sue  two  men  after  waiting  one  year  for 
my  pay  for  shoeing  their  horses.  One  of  these  men 
lived  in  a  house  that  cost  forty-five  thousand  dollars. 
Bragging  all  the  time  about  their  wealth  ;  I  never 
heard  them  brag  about  their  knowledge.  The  fact  is, 
they  did  not  have  much  of  that.  That  was  a  scarce 
article  on  the  horse  in  this  town.  I  want  to  ask  these 
men  who  this  time  belongs  to,  and  how  much  money 
they  have  got  invested  in  time.  Some  folks  talk  and 
act  as  though  time  belonged  to  them,  and  they  wanted 
to  monopolize  it  and  convert  it  all  to  their  own  use, 
as  they  have  many  things.  I  have  used  as  much 
time,  probably,  as  any  man  of  my  age,  and  others 
have  used  it,  and  yet  there  seems  to  be  lots  of  it  left. 
Some  use  time  in  one  way,  some  in  another.  It  is  used 
in  many  ways.  Some  use  it  fighting  against  their  own 
interest  and  others'  at  the  same  time,  and  do  not  know 
it;  and  that  was  what  the  ignorant  part  of  this  com- 
munity was  doing  in  this  town  for  two  years  fighting 
me.  I  suppose  they  will  fight  this  work  if  they  ever 
see  it.  Then  they  will  be  fighting  against  their  inter- 
est It  will  not  hurt  the  sale  of  this  work ;  it  will 
help  it  to  sell.  It  will  call  the  peoples'  attention  to 
see  what  all  this  racket  is  about.  That  was  what  I 
got  up  so  much  racket  in  your  town  for,  to  get  the 
people's  attention  attracted  to  me.  I  wanted  to  teach 
them  something  about  the  horse.  I  well  knew  they 
did  not  know  but  little  about  this  great  science  of 
workinsc  on  the  horse.     After  this  science  is  under- 


THE  horse's  rescue.  193 

stood,  the  long  lists  of  names  laid  down  in  books  for 
effect  will  be  buried  with  many  other  dead  and  useless 
names  and  things  of  the  past.  There  will  be  no  effect 
to  name.  Men  lose  money  and  their  hcrses  too.  If 
there  is  a  way  to  prevent  it,  and  they  know  it  to  be  a 
fact,  they  will  grasp  it  very  quickly.  All  they  want 
is  to  know  that  this  is  a  success  (and  it  is,  and  all  of 
the  howling  and  bawling  of  these  effect  doctors  will 
not  make  it  otherwise). 

After  working  in  this  town,  with  no  one  to  help  me 
but  my  little  boy  and  my  wife,  I  thought  I  would 
teach  a  young  man.  He  had  worked  at  blacksmith- 
ing  a  short  time,  and  was  trying  to  learn  how  to  shoe 
and  work  on  the  horse.  This  horse  business  requires 
two  good,  able-bodied  men  at  least  part  of  the  time — 
one  to  hold  up  the  feet  while  the  other  spreads  them. 
Sometimes  he  is  obliged  to  hold  up  more  than  half  of 
the  horse's  weight.  It  takes  some  strength  and  cour- 
age to  tackle  all  kinds  of  horses  in  this  way,  and  yet 
it  must  be  done  if  these  horses  that  are  in  this  fix  are 
ever  to  get  out  of  it.  This  young  man  saw  me  do  this 
and  helped  me  some,  and  yet  he  did  not  have  confi- 
dence enough  in  himself  to  do  it.  He  could  not  stand 
the  opposition  we  were  surrounded  with.  It  did  not  take 
much  to  cram  him  down.  I  soon  saw  he  would  not 
make  a  good  soldier  in  this  horse  fight.  He  dared  not 
come  right  out  and  talk.  He  was  shy.  He  dared  not 
get  up  a  racket.  He  could  not  stand  that.  I  soon 
saw  he  would  be  of  little  use  to  me.  I  wanted  fear- 
less men  to  introduce  this  science ;  no  coward  could 
do  it  The  horse  he  must  not  fear  ;  he  must  drive  and 
handle  him  iu  many  ways,  and  all  strange  horses.     A.l 


194  THE  horse's  rescue. 

of  the  time  he  was  too  weak  on  his  knees.  I  dropped 
liini.  Tn  about  one  year  I  went  in  his  shop.  He  was 
sliooing  horses.  The  work  he  was  doing  looked  rather 
ragged.  He  told  me,  "  This  is  the  way  I  am  doing  it 
now." 

He  was  driving  in  old  stubs  in  the  old  holes,  with 
the  lever  all  left  on  the  toe,  and  growing  longer  all  of 
the  time.     I  said  to  him  : 

"  This  is  not  right ;  the  horse  is  the  sufferer.  Your 
customers  will  go  back  on  you." 

"  Thev  do  not  know  the  difference  "  said  he. 

In  that  he  was  partly  right.  Some  do  know  when 
they  have  got  a  job  that  looks  well.  This  ironing  a 
horse's  foot  is  quite  a  different  thing,  if  botched,  from 
other  mechanical  work.  It  causes  the  horse  to  suffer. 
A  man  can  botch  a  job  on  a  wagon,  and  yet  tlie  wagon 
does  not  suffer.  I  have  seen  and  heard  some  groan  as 
if  they  feel  pain.  The  cause  was  a  botch  job,  and  it 
caused  the  horses  to  suffer  that  was  drawing  these 
wao^ons.  To  set  the  tire  too  ti^rht  on  the  lumber 
wagon  dishes  the  wheels  one  inch  each  too  much. 
What  effect  can  that  have  on  these  deformed  horses? 
Put  on  forty  hundred  weight  on  rutty  roads,  then  you 
can  tell.  If  the  wheel  runs  in  the  rut  at  all  it  con- 
stantlv  crowds  and  grinds  against  the  shoulder  of  the 
axle  This  causes  the  horse  to  suffer.  I  have  had 
many  of  these  new-born  babes  on  the  horse  try  to  talk 
and  lie  me  down  to  build  themselves  up. 

I  shall  state  here  I  know  the  horse's  condition  has 
o-rown  worse  for  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  for 
several  reasons.  Since  shoes  for  the  horse,  and  nails 
to  nail   them  on,  have  been  made  by  machinery,  the 


THE  horse's  rescue.  195 

shoer,  as  soon  as  be  can  learn  to  weld  on  a  cork  on  the 
toe  in  a  bungling  way,  buys  some  stock  and  sets  up 
the  business  of  slaughtering  the  horse.  He  works  on 
no  principle,  either  right  or  wrong.  He  brags,  and  his 
friends  brag  for  him,  and*  they  know  less,  if  it  is  pos- 
sible, than  horses.  He  is  safe  enough  if  they  all  get 
crippled  on  his  hands.  The  creator  has  made  such  a 
botch  of  making  the  horse,  he  can't  eat  or  drink  water. 
All  kinds  of  grain  will  make  him  stiff  or  lame  in  all 
deforces,  sonie  on  one  foot,  some  on  two,  some  on  all, 
in  all  degrees,  and  yet  he  must  eat  or  he  will  die.  In 
some  places  they  are  nailing  on  cast  shoes.  In  this 
case  the  foot  must  be  cut  to  jSt  the  shoe. 

Of  ail  the  damned  fools  that  I  ever  heard  talk,  the 
biggest  is  men  that  claim  that  horses  are  stiffened  by 
w^hat  they  eat  or  drink.  There  are  so  many  degrees 
on  the  same  horses,  and  on  the  same  horse ;  and  these 
men  gather  around  me  in  herds  almost  daily,  teaching 
me  these  w6nderful  truths  they  claim  to  know,  and  all 
driving  stiff  and  lame  horses  in  some  degree.  If 
what  they  say  is  true,  they  are  a  careless,  ignorant  lot 
of  fools,  and  their  talk  bears  witness  against  them- 
selves, and  it  needs  no  other  proof,  for  their  horses  are 
enough  to  condemn  them.  They  are  nearly  all  crip- 
pled in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  That  needs  no  proof. 
It  crops  out  all  over  the  land  in  bold  relief ;  and  if 
these  horses  are  stiffened  by  grain  and  water,  why  do 
they  scurf  the  shoer  so  much  for  spoiling  their  horses 
and  run  to  him  to  get  them  cured — the  same  place 
where  they  get  them  spoilt?  It  is  curious  how  many 
tunes  can  be  played  on  one  of  these  lying  bugles  when 
some  men  get  to  blowing  them. 


196  THE  horse's  rescue. 

There  are  many  animals  that  eat  grain,  but  none  are 
stiff  and  lame  like  the  horse  and  mule.  All  animals 
di'ink  water,  and  it  does  not  affect  any  but  these  two 
species  in  this  way.  How  is  this,  you  wonderfully 
knowing  men  ?  I  should  think  you  would  appeal  to 
the  creator  to  have  an  improvement  made  on  these  two 
species  of  animals.  According  to  your  reasoning, 
there  is  something  wrong  in  their  construction,  or  you 
should  use  more  reason  and  judgment  about  feeding 
grain  and  giving  them  water,  knowing,  as  you  claim, 
so  much  about  the  cause  of  all  this.  Suppose  you 
experiment  a  little  and  stop  giving  your  horses  grnin 
and  water,  or  a  very  little,  and  keep  their  feet  ironed, 
and  that  by  a  botch;  you  can  tell  soon  where  the 
cause  is.  They  feed  all  kinds  of  cattle,  young  and 
old,  the  strongest  kind,  and  they  are  tied  up  and  have 
but  little  exercise  ;  yet  they  do  not  get  stiff  by  an}^- 
thing  they  eat  and  drink.  The  ox  is  kept  shod  in 
many  places  the  whole  year  round,  and  fed  grain,  and 
heavy  too,  and  I  have  seen  them  when  warm  drink  a 
half-barrel  of  water  at  once,  and  have  shoes  on  at  the 
same  time,  and  not  get  stiff.  My  father  lived  among 
the  rough  hills  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
kept  them,  shod  and  fed  them,  an  J  yet  I  never  saw 
him  have  a  stiff  or  sprained  ox.  He  worked  these 
oxen.  The  ox's  foot  is  split;  the  shoe  is  in  two 
parts,  and  there  is  no  contraction.  The  lever  does  get 
long.  It  does  not  effect  the  ox  as  it  does  the  horse. 
The  lever  on  the  ox's  foot  does  not  extend  beyond  the 
useless  growth  of  the  hoof.  On  the  horse  it  is  very 
different. 

After  I  get  this  work  from  the  press  I  am   ready  to 


THE   horse's  rescue.  197 

go  to  school  to  these  great  teachers  to  see  what  great 
discoveries  they  have  made  on  the  horse      Some  have 
never  been  out  of  the  town  in  which   they  were  born. 
If  they  can  tell   me  how  and  on  what  theory  or  plan 
the}^  obtained  so  much  knowledge   of  the  horse's  foot 
and  the  cause  that  threw  him  in   this  deformed  condi- 
tion, without  any  experience   or  experimenting,  tliey 
will  f'onfer  on  me  a  great  favor.     They  can  make  their 
independent   fortune    out  of  that.     It    will  do  away 
with  exnerimentino-  on    all    things,  and    save    a  vast 
amount  of  useless  labor.     This  is  the  way  all   great 
things  have  been  perfected.     It  will  save  mental  taxa- 
tion.    I  wish  I  had  known  this   new  theory  forty-one 
years  ago  ;  m}^  back  and  hips  and  shoulders  would  not 
ache  so  while  I  am  writing  this  work.     I  have  heard 
in  my  life  folks  talk  about  using  common  sense.    How 
plenty  that  article  is  I  know  not.     There  is  not  much 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  horse,  that  I  know.     The 
article  of  reason,  talking,  and  working  on  the  horse  is 
almost  out  of  use.     Judgment,  there  is  lots  of  that  of 
all  kinds.     There  is  all  degrees  of  it.     They  all  differ 
using  judgment.     There  is  good  and  poor  judgment 
used  on   the  horse.     Of  that  article  ninety  per  cent 
used  is  very  poor.     Useless  opinions  and  beliefs  are 
used  by  the  wholesale.     Still  the  horse  suffers.     Igno- 
rant men  have  the  impudence  to  tell  me  I  cannot  cure 
these  horses,  and  never  did.     Any  one  would  think,  to 
hear  them  talk,  they  knew  all  things,  and  were  in  all 
places  at  the  same  time.     ISTow  I  want  these  poor  fools 
to  tell  me  how  they  know  I  cannot  cure  these  horses. 
Thev  are  in   one  place  drawing  manure,  which   they 
can  t^o  after  somebody  has  made  the  wagon  to  draw  it 


198  THE  horse's  rescue. 

on  ;  that  tliej  could  not  make.  I  am  hundreds  of 
miles  away  curing  these  horses.  I  could  do  this  in  a 
small  village  and  they  be  ignorant  of  the  fact.  It 
might  be  put  in  print  in  the  daily  papers,  and  such 
ignoramuses  as  these  never  know  it.  They  seldom,  if 
ever,  read  ;  and  yet  I  have  had  nearly  all  of  my  abuse 
from  this  source.  To  get  drunk  on  what  they  call 
whisky  is  the  hight  of  iheir  ambition.  The  next  is  to 
abuse  and  misuse  these  helpless  horses  in  many  ways. 
Reader,  if  j^ou  ever  try  to  introduce  this  science,  my 
experience  has  taught  me  from  such  to  turn  away. 
They  cannot  take  in  this  great  science;  they  only 
fjght;  you  cannot  teach  them.  The  higher  always 
teach  the  lower.  You  cannot  get  teachers  from  the 
lower  to  teach  the  higher ;  that  would  be  too  much 
like  spreading  the  horse's  foot  at  the  toe  or  at  the  top. 
You  must  select  naturalists  and  scientific  men — men 
of  brains,  men  whose  word  is  good,  not  liars.  I  have 
studied  man  some  in  the  same  time  I  have  been  study- 
the  horse.  There  are  men  that  can  and  do  lie,  and  it 
is  wonderful  how  they  will  multiply.  Liars  are  very 
prolific.  If  one  big  liar  should  tell  lies  out  of  whole 
cloth  before  six  or  eight  bearers  of  lies,  it  is  surpris- 
ing what  a  crop  you  will  have  in  a  short  time,  and 
how  they  will  multiph'',  and  what  a  field  they  w^ill 
spread  over.  They  are  borne  in  papers,  on  the  tele- 
graph, and  telephone,  in  the  mail,  and  across  the  ocean 
and  under  it.  I  speak  of  this  for  this  reason,  to  post 
you  up.  All  this  I  have  had  to  contend  with  in  try- 
ing lo  perfect  this  w^ork  and  trying  to  introduce  it. 
Before  I  get  through  I  will  show  you  where  I  experi- 
mented a  little  on  this  lying  business.    The  lying  fruit 


THE   horse's  rescue.  199 


some  are  very  fond  of.  They  can  masticate  and  swal- 
low and  digest  this  easy.  They  seem  to  relish  it,  too. 
'No  matter  how  large  this  fruit  is,  they  can  swallow  it, 
and  some  have  swallowed  so  much  of  it  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  get  them  to  taste  the  truth.  It 
is  surprising  how  full  some  folks  will  allow  themsel\T;s 
to  be  stuffed  with  lies.  Why  do  you  not  investigate 
for  yourselves,  and  go  for  facts  and  see  them  demon- 
strated? and  then  you  will  know  these  lies  are  only 
told  to  deceive  you  bj^  men  that  want  to  keep  up  this 
torturing  business  on  your  poor,  suffering  horses,  and 
put  down  this  great  science.  They  are  badly  scared  ; 
their  craft  is  in  danger  of  being  wrecked,  and  they  do 
not  like  to  be  made  out  worse  than  fools.  When  this 
science  is  introduced  they  will  feel  exceedingly  small. 
This  is  certain  ;  it  is  and  has  been  almost  a  daily  oc- 
currence for  many  years  to  hav  a  lot  of  teachers 
gather  around  me,  all  talking  horse,  all  talking  at  the 
same  time,  all  directing  their  lesson  to  me. 

Since  I  have  commenced  writing  this  work  several 
have  told  me  they  were  going  to  write  a  book  on  the 
horse.  I  told  them  if  they  wanted  to  I  had  no  objec- 
tions. ''That  is  all  right,"  said  I.  "You  may  know 
many  things  about  the  horse  that  I  do  not.  Your 
book  would  perhaps  sell  as  well  as  mine.  You  have 
as  good  a  right  to  make  books  and  sell  them  as  any 
man."  But  they  would  have  to  write  different  from 
what  they  talk  in  order  for  the  reader  to  understand 
what  they  wanted  to  convey.  If  these  books  ever  do 
come  out  1  will  compile  them.  Then  you  will  have 
the  best  guide  to  cure  these  lame  and  deformed  horses 
that  ever  came  from  a  press.     I  have  tried  to   learn 


200  THE   horse's   rescuk 

these  lessons  so  I  could  talk  them.  I  may  give  a 
shoi't  lecture  i"hat  I  have  learned  from  these  teachers 
after  I  get  this  work  out  I  can  talk  it  bettei  than  I 
can  write  it.  It  is  very  complicated.  It  requires 
quite  an  expert  to  talk  eight  or  nine  men's  lessons  and 
carry  them  all  along  at  the  same  time,  and  all  disagree- 
ing on  all  points,  opinions,  and  beliefs.  The  more  a 
man  believes  the  less  he  knows.  The  more  he  knows 
the  less  he  believes.  A  man  that  is  satisfied  with  what 
he  has  got  of  knowledge  is  never  prepared  for  any 
more. 

I  have  no  power  to  convey  with  my  pen  these  horse 
]essons  that  I  have  had.  I  think  after  taking  five  or 
six  hundred  more  I  will  be  able  to  talk  it.  I  am  going 
to  try  to  learn  them.  If  I  can  learn  to  talk  nine  men's 
talk  at  one  time  on  the  horse,  that  will  be  a  big  thing. 

It  has  been  now  one  month  since  you  have  heard 
from  the  old  white  mare.  It  has  been  all  of  this  long 
month  the  same  thing — continued  talking,  shoeing, 
and  working  on  all  kinds  of  lame  and  crippled  horses, 
early  and  late,  sometimes  all  night.  These  few  horses 
that  I  write  about  are  only  now  and  then  one  of  thou- 
sands I  have  worked  on  in  forty-one  years.  This 
fight  for  the  horse  has  been  a  long  one,  and  it  is  not 
over  yet.  We  are  just  getting  in  the  hottest  of  it  now, 
but  the  hotter  the  battle  the  more  glorious  the  victory 
— for  that  we  are  going  to  have.  It  has  got  started, 
and  it  cannot  be  stopped.  Too  many  have  seen  this 
work  done — scientific  men,  which  I  shall  refer  to  be- 
fore I  get  through  this  work. 

This  old  mare  is  doing,  finely.  She  must  have  her 
feet  dressed  as  before  and  spread  a  little.     I  did  not 


THE    house's    rescue.  201 

measure  her  shoe  to  see  how  much  I  did  spread  it.  It 
needed  but  very  little.  The  sole  is  the  guide  on  all 
feet.  I  cannot  furnish  any  reason,  sense,  or  judgment 
in  this  woi'k.  I  want  all  I  have  got  for  my  own  use. 
You  must  use  your  own  on  this  work — all  you  can 
command — and  use  it  all  of  the  time  in  all  cases. 
They  all  vary  in  many  ways,  as  I  have  already  written 
many  times. 

I  spread  after  this  operation  a  little  every  ten  or 
twelve  or  fifteen  days,  according  to  my  best  judgment. 
The  object  in  doing  this  was  to  keep  the  structure  of 
the  foot  always  in  harmony  of  action,  and  this  cofTni- 
joint  and  all  others  as  r.ear  their  natui'al  place  as  pos- 
sible all  the  time.  So  as  to  have  her  improve,  I  did 
not  leave  anything  undone  for  one  hour  that  I  could 
do  to  forward  this  work  I  was  trying  so  haid  to  do.  I 
had  got  this  mare's  feet  flattened  out,  and  the  growth 
not  wearing  off.  The  shoe  nailed  on  to  hold  it  spread 
would  also  hold  it  from  spreading;  at  the  same  time, 
if  the  foot  was  allowed  to  grow  on  the  course  it  is  in- 
clined to  grow  and  not  spread,  the  sole  would  I'aisc  up 
in  degrees  according  to  tlie  time  it  was  held  at  the  bot- 
tom. This  would  affect  the  coffin-joint  and  throw  her 
off  her  base  and  affect  her  all  over  according  to  the 
degree  of  change  from  natural.  I  kept  this  mare  and 
changed  her  shoes  several  times  to  keep  the  lever  on 
the  toe  as  short  as  I  could,  and  spread  her  feet  many 
times  a  little.  You  ought  to  see  what  I  was  spreading 
her  feet  for  by  small  degrees.  I  kept  up  rubbii]g  her 
shoulders  often,  and  nights  many  houi-s  at  a  time.  I 
drove  her  nights.  There  was  no  let-up  on  this  job  for 
six  months.     Reader,  imagine,  if  3'ou  can,  my  feelings, 


202  THE  horse's  rescue. 

\7liicli  I  well  know  jou  cannot,  after  all  this  hard  work 
and  no  reward  to  perfect  this  work,  to  have  a  lot  of 
i<rncrant  men  insult  jou  daily  and  hourly.  I  can  tell 
you  how  I  feel  sometimes,  just  like  taking  my  flat 
liand  and  mutilating  their  bugle.  They  are  not  of 
much  account.  They  will  have  to  pass  oil  of  this 
enrth  as  many  have,  and  not  take  much  with  them. 
Knowledge  is  all  they  can  take,  and  of  that  they  will 
be  a  little  short.  What  a  man  knows  is  all  that  makes 
him  anything.  What  another  knows  does  not  help  all 
others  only  such  little  as  he  can  teach  them  ;  and 
where  there  is  no  material  to  work  on  it  is  up-hill  busi- 
ness. To  make  something  out  of  nothing  is  a  very 
difficult  task.  When  talking  horse  and  that  kind  of 
talk,  which  can  be  heard  coming  from  me  all  days  and 
in  all  places,  I  have  been  called  drunk  by  the  ignorant. 
I  never  had  any  abuse  from  the  enlightened  part  of  the 
community.  If  they  did  not  help  me  they  did  not  in- 
sult me.  I  am  about  as  fearless  as  the  most  of  men, 
and  yet  I  do  have  fear.  I  do  not  drink  alcoholic 
drink  of  any  kind  for  many  reasons  ;  one  I  will  men- 
tion is  this:  I  am  afraid  I  will  get  killed  by  drugs  of 
some  kind.  I  am  not  afraid  to  die,  but  I  do  not  want 
to  fail  to  introduce  this  great  science  on  the  horse  that 
1  have  worked  so  many  years  to  perfect. 

The  last  resort  of  the  ignorant,  if  they  cannot  keep 
pace  with  others  in  this  race  of  progression,  is  slan- 
der. Eead  the  history  of  the  past,  imperfect  as  it  is, 
and  it  will  give  you  a  little  light — enough  to  open  your 
eyes  a  little  and  put  you  on  the  right  track.  You  can 
never  learn  this  science  or  any  other  by  fighting,  ly- 
incy,  and  slanderinof  others.     You  may  go  well  dressed. 


THE  hokse's  rescue.  208 

and  yet  it  does  not  add  to  your  knowledge.  When  I 
work  on  horses  my  clothes  do  not  please  some,  and  yet 
I  wear  them  all  days.  These  horse  needed  my  care. 
All  days  and  nights  I  wore  a  strong  pair  of  pants,  a 
heavy  woolen  shirt.  Suspenders  I  never  could  get  to 
hold  a  horse ;  pants  with  patches  on  the  legs,  three  or 
four  on  top  of  each  other,  and  if  some  were  leather  it 
is  all  the  better;  then  a  stout  leather  apron  over  all. 
It  does  save  your  knees  and  legs  some.  And  yet  with 
all  this  protection  I  have  hud  all  stripped  oS.  clear  to 
the  floor,  and  some  skin  with  it ;  cords  laid  bare  on  my 
legs ;  suspenders  broken  ;  buttons  nearly  off,  and  pants 
too.  In  a  shipwreck  like  this  I  usually  used  to  use 
horse  nails  for  suspender  buttons.  Sometimes  I  used 
them^  for  weeks ;  they  would  hold  better.  When  I 
wanted  some  slock,  or  five  cent's  worth  of  tobacco,  I 
did  not  take  these  nails  out  or  change  my  clothes,  or 
wash.  I  walked  in  all  places  of  business  through  the 
day,  and  night  too.  My  business  was  woiking  on  the 
horse  all  hours,  and  I  must  be  harnessed  for  it,  and  it 
has  been  so  for  forty-one  years.  I  was  slovenly  and 
smelt  bad,  the  result  of  wiping  manure  off  of  others' 
horses  on  myself  and  clothes  daily  that  they  should 
have  cleaned  off  themselves.  I  have  cleaned  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  horses  in  this  way  befoi-e  I  got 
them  shod,  and  when  the  horse  left  the  shop  he  would 
be  cleaner  than  he  would  be  again  from  that  time  un- 
til he  came  to  be  shod  again.  -Sometimes  I  would 
clean  eight  or  ten  in  one  day,  and  have  the  most  of 
this  filth  and  stench  on  myself  or  clothes,  and  be 
obliged  to  breathe  and  smell  it  all  of  the  time.  My 
God !  it  is  a  great  wonder  I  have  not  been  stunk  to 


204  THE  horse's  rescue. 

death  and  rotted  down  by  my  blood  getting  bad  by 
breathing  this  filth,  all  caused  by  people  not  keeping 
their  horses  and  stables  clean.  Breathing  this  foul  air 
in  stables  will  make  the  blood  of  the  horse  impure 
faster  than  anything  else  can  ;  cattle  the  same.  We 
all  are  judges,  and  all  constantly  judging  each  other. 
Some  judge  one  way,  some  other  wa3^s,  and  there  are 
all  degrees  of  judgment  on  all  things.  Others  can 
judge  as  they  like.  I  do.  But  I  never  judge  a  man's 
worth  by  the  money  or  the  wealth  he  has,  neither  by 
his  wearing  apparol.  He  might  sit  on  a  throne  of 
solid,  pure  gold,  with  a  crown  on  his  head  that  out- 
dazzled  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  and  be  clothed  in 
roval  robes  that  were  decorated  with  costly  diamonds 
that  hung  in  festoons,  with  the  costliest  plumage,  with 
a  trail  twenty  feet  long  in  the  rear  trimmed  the  same. 
All  this  would  not  have  any  effect  on  me  in  judging 
his  worth.  It  would  not  add  any  to  his  worth  or 
knowledge  or  goodness.  A  fool  can  be  dressed  in  this 
way,  and  many  have  been.  Such  men  as  these  can 
never  cure  these  suffering  horses.  They  like  pomp 
and  show  too  well,  and  what  they  call  ease.  I  would 
rather  be  in  some  cold  barn  relieving  the  suffering  of 
one  horse  than  see  all  the  pomp  and  show  on  the  globe. 
Working  men  are  what  is  required  to  cure  and  intro- 
duce this  work.  To  pomp  and  show  I  never  bow  and 
scrape.  Neither  do  I  worship  any  man.  A  dead  man 
would  be  of  as  much  use  to  me  to  introduce  this  science 
as  a  sit-still.  A  king  on  a  throne  is  about  as  useless 
as  a  dead  man  can  be.  Work  and  business  is  the  plan 
of  operation  in  this  world.  Live  men  are  what  make 
things  move,  and  sometimes  they  move  things  some 


THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE.  205 

do  not  want  moved  ;  and  this  work  on  the  horse,  if  I 
mistake  not,  will  remove  some   deep-rooted  errors  of 
longer  standing  than  any  stiff  horse  living  at  this  day. 
The    horse    has    suffered   hundreds  of  years   on    this 
globe,  all  caused   by  error  and  ignorance,  and  many 
times  dishonesty  in   many  ways.     I  hear  many  times 
when  I  am  talking  for  the  horse,  "  He  is  a  big  blower." 
If  I  could  not  talk  more  sense  than  some  of  these 
blowers  talk  on   the  horse  I  would  never  open  my 
mouth  again.     They  know  but  little  or  nothing  about 
the  condition  the  horse  is  in.     This  I  well  know,  and 
I  will   give   my  reasons  for  knowing.     But  very  few 
ever  have  worked  on  the  horse's  feet^  and  those  that 
have  did  not  do   it  right ;  and  all  of  these  men  that 
are  bawling  around  me  never  worked  on  the  horse's 
feet.     How  can  they  know  anything  about  it  with  their 
horses  all  stiff?     How  can   you  know  so   much?     It 
took    me    forty-one   years  almost,  days  and  parts  of 
nights,  and   many  nights  all   night.     Many  and  many 
are  the  nights  I  have  lain  in  bed  studying  on  this  work 
until  light,  and  not  slept  one  wink      Days  and  nights 
I   have   experimented.     This  work  cost  money,  *nd  I 
earned  it  all.     It  cost  me  forty-one  years  of  lhe  hard- 
est mental,  physical,  and  practical  labor  a  man  ever 
endured,  and  lots  of  persecution  and  abuse  by  jealous 
fools. 

I  will  say  right  here  that  when  I  get  stuck  on  this 
lior.se  business  I  will  send  for  :some  of  these  great 
teachers  that  have  been  trying  to  teach  me  so  much. 
I  will  let  them  know  when  I  want  them.  With  all 
this  hard  labor  I  have  stuff  enough  left  in  me  now  to 
face  a  regiment  of  such   bawling  fools.     They  are  of 


206  THE  horse's  rescue. 

no  use  to  me  ;  neither  are  they  in  the  waj  of  intro- 
ducing this  science,  only  one  gets  tired  hearing- their 
bawling-.  I  li;;ve  no  trouble  only  with  this  class.  This 
is  the  class  all  scientific  men  have  more  or  less  trouble 
with.  Ignorance  is  the  cause  of  all.  There  are  mill- 
ions of  men  on  this  globe  that  never  invented  any- 
thing, and  never  had  one  original  thought ;  if  they  did, 
they  did  not  have  courage  enough  to  talk  or  write  it, 
and  if  all  men  had  been  as  big  cowards  as  they  there 
would  not  have  been  any  improvements  or  discoveries 
or  progression  made  ;  and  yet  they  will  talk  and  brag 
of  their  knowledge,  and  it  is  all  borrowed.  It  had  its 
origin  in  other  men's  brains.  They  can  commit  to 
memory  some  of  these  great  principles  after  others 
have  discovered  and  ])erfected  them  by  applying  them- 
selves, and  that  seems  a  hard  task.  This  horse  science 
is  diUerent  from  many  other  sciences.  It  requires 
something  besides  brains,  and  yet  brains  are  the  first 
qualification.  Without  them  there  cannot  be  any 
horses  cured.  It  requires  great  strength  and  courage, 
resolution  and  firmness.  A  man  that  is  constantly 
twirling  a  handkerchief  around  a  stove-pipe  hat,  and 
keeps  one  or  two  women  constantly  washing  and  iron- 
ing to  keep  him  starched  and  clean,  and  who  finds 
fault  with  their  work,  and  does  none  himself,  would 
be  of  no  use  to  any  one  in  this  horse  science.  Re- 
moving the  cause  of  these  suffering  horses  is  harder 
work  than  it  is  to  make  them  so ;  that  is,  shoeing 
them,  which  is  what  makes  them  so.  There  are  a  few 
exceptions.  I  can  iron  a  pair  of  horse's  feet,  and  drive 
them  a  thousand  miles,  and  they  would  perform  the 
journey   better  by  doing   so,  and  they   would  suffer 


THE  hoese's  rescue.  207 

from  the  effect  but  very  little,  if  any,  in  the  time  I 
was  driving  them  this  journey.     It  would  not  be  done 
•  in  the  way  it  usually  is  done  and  ordered  to  be  done. 
To  begin  this  job  I  should  want  the  horse's  feet  all 
natural  as  tlie  creator  made  them  or  intended  them  to 
be  ;  that  is,  the  structure  of  the  foot  internally  in  har- 
mony of  action.     I  would  cut  away  all  useless  growth 
of  hoof  and  true  up  the  feet.     This  dressing  the  bot- 
tom of  a  horse's  feet,  heel  and  toe,  if  it  is  nearly  nat- 
ural, is  or  should  be  the  finest  piece  of  mechanical 
work  ever  done  on  any  machine.     The  horse  is  a  ma- 
chine.    If  this  dressing  is  not  done  nearly  right  you 
will  spoil  this  machine,  and  not  know  how  you  did  it. 
If  you  cut  the  heel  too  low,  and  leave  the  toe  too  high, 
if  only  one-eighth   of  an  inch  each,  it  will  make  the 
heel  one-quarter  too  low,  and  leave  the  toe   a  quarter 
of  an  inch  too  long.     Shoe  all  around  in  this  way  with 
bungling,  heavy  shoes;  start  on  your  journey  with  lit- 
tle changed  off  their  base,  your  horses  will  tell  you  of 
it  in  this  way;  if  you  will   notice  them,  by  showing 
soreness,  if  they  are  not  very  stiff  and  lame.     This  is 
not  a   very  botched   job  compared  with  some.     This 
same  principle  doubled  will  slaughter  the  best  pair  of 
horses,  if  the  shoes    are  allowed    to  remain    on    two 
months,  that   ever  lived,  if  they  are   driven  on  hard 
roads.     I  do   not  mean  it  would   kill  them ;  it  would 
make  them  stiE  and  sore  until  the  cause  was  removed. 
It   serves  all    the  same,  according   to  the  degrees  of 
botching,  on  all  feet,  singly  or  collectively. 

Now,  reader,  whoever  you  may  be  that  is  interested 
in  this  work  on  the  horse  enough  to  give  your  atten- 
tion, I  will  try,  as  near  as  I  can  in  this  work,  to  tell 


208  THE   horse's  rescue. 

you  how  I  would  shoe  a  pair  of  horses  to  perform  a 
journey  of  a  thousand  miles,  and  what  I  would  do 
after  the  journey.  I  cannot  tell  you  as  well  as  I  could 
if  you  and  I  were  standing  by  and  looking  on  this  pair 
of  horses.  They  need  a  little  dressing  on  all  of  their 
feet,  some  in  one  way,  some  in  another,  and  they  all 
vary  in  some  way  and  in  many  degrees  ;  and  all  horses 
do  more  or  less.  True  up  ;  do  not  forget  this  heel  and 
toe  business  and  lever  on  the  toe  ;  it  is  growing  all  the 
time;  it  is  not  going  to  wear  off  much.  It  will  take 
about  a  month,  we  will  say,  to  make  this  journey.  I 
am  ffoincr  to  shoe  these  horses  and  drive  and  take  care 
of  them  myself.  (I  would  trust  them  in  no  man's 
hands.)  Then  I  would  know  they  were  cared  for. 
The  colt's  foot  on  the  horses  you  are  shoeing  in  shape 
is  one  thing  to  look  to.  Shoe  thin  and  light.  After 
trueing  up  the  feet  let  the  shoes  follow  the  shell  clear 
around  the  heel ;  shoe  only  a  little  longer  at  heel  than 
the  foot.  Flat  rest  on  shoe  at  the  heel ;  dress  foot  to 
fit  and  fit  it.  No  spring  in  any  way.  Make  the  toe  a 
little  shorter  than  natural,  for  this  reason,  it  is  grow- 
ing all  of  the  time,  and  this  will  save  the  cords.  Not 
ar  cork  on  these  shoes,  the  roads  are  dry  and  hard. 
Nail  with  very  small  nails  ;  nail  in  toe ;  no  nails  back 
of  the  widest  part  of  the  foot;  the  heel  should  have 
liberty,  as  all  of  the  foot  should,  but  it  cannot  if  it  is 
ironed.  Every  night,  after  driving  all  day  on  hard 
roads,  the  horse's  feet  will  have  unnatural  heat.  Do 
not  forget  your  horses  have  got  feet  on  their  hind 
legs.  B'Ut  few  have  noticed  this.  They  get  hot  too. 
They  travel  the  same  distance  that  his  forward  feet 
do,  and  the  concussion  is  about  the   same,     1   carry  a 


THE   horse's  rescue.  209 

foot  hook,  and  clean  out  all  dirt  and  gravel  under  the 
shoes,  if  there  is  any.    I  look  to  see,  then  I  will  know; 
pack  all  feet  with  cow  manure;  this  takes  out  the  un- 
natural heat.     If  I  did   not  do   this  when   the   horses 
lie  down  after  driving  all  day,  this  heat  would  dry  up 
the  foot  or  cause  it  to  dry  up.    In  this  case,  the  weight 
being  off  the  center,  the  sole  would  rise  up.     If  it  is 
only  a  little  degree,  it  effects  when  the  horses  rise  on 
their  feet.     The  weight  will  settle  the   sole  again.     It 
causes   irritation.     If   they  are   packed   this  will  not 
take  place.     In  wet  an^  muddy  roads  this  would  not 
be  necessary.     There  would   not  be  the  concussion. 
The  water  and  mud  would  take  out  the  heat.     This  is 
the  way  some  horses  get  very  badly  stiffened  right 
after  feeding  and  watering,  by  not  taking  care  of  their 
feet  after  hard  drives.     And  if  they  did  do  all  this,  if 
they  were  botched  ironing  their  feet,  no  packing  or 
soaking  would  prevent  until  the  cause  was  removed 
and  kept  removed. 

At  the  end  of  this  journey  I  find  my  horses,  with 
t^is  care,  as  limber  as  they  were  when  I  first  started. 
The  shoes  are  about  worn  off  their  feet,  and  all  nearly 
worn  in  two  at  the  toe ;  and  some  of  the  hoof  at  the 
toe  is  worn  off.  This  is  all  right  for  me  and  the  horses 
too.  I  wanted  it  to  wear  off ;  the  lever  has  been 
growing  all  the  time,  and  wearing  off  has  shortened  it. 
This  takes  th*^  strain  off  the  back  tendons,  and,  with 
other  care  I  take  of  them,  keeps  my  horses  from  get- 
ting foundered. 

Remember,  I  told  you  before  I  shod  these  horse 
they  were  nearly  natural.  In  this  case  the  frog  before 
shoeing  on  all  of  their  feet  rested   on   the   grcMind     I 


2i0  THE  horse's  rescue. 

put  on  the  slices  thin  for  several  reasons ;  one  is  this :  I 
want  the  frog  to  rest  on  the  ground.  After  I  get  these 
horses  shod  the  same  as  before  I  nailed  the  shoes  on. 
If  I  raise  the  center  of  the  foot  up  from  the  ground  the 
weight  of  the  horse  is  in  the  center  of  each  foot.  Then 
drive  on  hard,  dry  road.  I  could  not  drive  five  miles 
before  the  coffin  joint  would  be  badly  affected  on  all 
their  feet  all  out  of  harmony  of  action.  Put  in  motion 
in  this  condition  causes  unnatural  heat.  They  would 
settle  down  through  the  cup  at  the  top  until  the  frog 
comes  to  a  rest  on  the  s:round  in  the  center.  At  the 
first  start  on  this  journey  I  would  be  all  out  of  har- 
mony. I  do  not  want  these  horses  to  change  any, 
either  way,  if  I  can  prevent  it.  This  is  the  reason  I 
dress  the  heel  of  the  foot  flat  and  give  the  shoe  flat 
rest  at  the  heel.  I  do  not  want  any  springing  and 
changing  internally  on  any  of  these  eight  feet  on  this 
pair  of  horses.  The  heel  has  some  liberty  as  the  feet 
grow.  Shod  in  this  way  they  will  spread  out,  if 
proper  care  is  taken  of  them,  by  small  degrees,  in 
driving  them.  If  the  frog  does  rest  on  the  ground  I 
am  not  smart  enough  to  cure  and  keep  cured  stiff 
horses,  they  standing  in  the  barn  week  after  week.  I 
drive  horses  to  cure  them  and  have  them  improve  all 
of  the  time,  and  if  they  are  natural  I  do  my  work  to 
keep  them  natural.  Another  reason  for  not  having 
corks  on  these  shoes:  they  are  of  no  use  on  dry  roads. 
I  do  not  want  my  horses  up  on  stilts  at  any  time. 
Another  reason  for  having  the  shoes  light :  the  horses 
will  not  raise  their  feet  so  high,  the  concussion  on 
their  feet  is  not  so  great,  and  the  greatest  reason  of  all 
is,  it  will  not  shipwreck  me  on  the  rond  and  at  home. 


THE    horse's    rescue.  211 

I  told  you  I  would  tell  you  what  I  would  do  at  the 
end  of  this  journey  with  these  horses,  and  here  she 
goes.  If  I  did  not  know  more  than  some  folks  do 
about  a  horse  I  would  pull  off  their  shoes,  if  they  did 
take  cold,  and  never  nail  or  allow  any  one  else  to,  an 
iron  on  their  feet.  Then  you  would  not  stiffen  so 
many,  giving  them  something  to  eat  and  drink,  and 
you  would  not  cause  your  horses  to  suffer  so  much, 
and  you  would  enjoy  your  ride  after  them  better. 

Reader,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  tell  all  the  fault  I 
have  had  found  with  me  and  my  work  on  one  thing, 
that  is,  the  toe-corks  would  wear  off  on  horseshoes. 
They  wanted  big  corks,  and  they  wanted  them  to  stay 
big.  They  wanted  them  sharp,  and  to  always  stay 
sharp.  With  all  of  my  skill  this  I  could  not  do.  If  I 
could  have  done  this  it  would  have  been  a  bier  thino^.  I 
could  give  better  satisfaction.  I  could  have  made  horses 
stiffer,  and  they  would  get  stiff  faster,  if  I  could  stop 
the  wear  on  the  toe  of  the  shoes.  They  tried  hard  to 
get  me  to  do  it.  I  have  sent  lots  away  on  this  ac- 
count. It  is  curious  how  hard  folks  will  try  to  get  you 
to  spoil  their  horses.  Then  after  you  have  done  it 
thej  will  tell  far  and  near  that  you  did  it.  Some  they 
will  tell  they  are  foundered.  They  ate  some  oats  or 
drank  water.  What  do  all  these  contradictory  stories 
amount  to  ?  Simply  nothing.  If  they  came  from  a 
lunatic,  or  some  one  that  had  lost  his  reason,  a  little 
consistency  might  appear,  and  some  allowance  be  made. 
The  fact  is,  the  condition  these  poor  horses  are  thrown 
in,  caused  by  ironing  their  feet  and  other  abuse,  is  so 
complicated  it  is  hard  to  convey  with  a  pen  or  in  any 
other  way,  and  I  get  very  tired.     Some  are  changed 


212  THE  horse's  resgue. 

very  suddenly,  some  are  years  changing.  These  slow 
changes  I  cannot  describe,  except  in  this  way  :  You 
cannot  see  them  change ;  it  is  like  the  hill  of  corn.  It 
grows  and  yet  you  cannot  see  it  grow.  The  change  on 
thousands  of  these  horses  is  so  slow  you  do  not  notice 
the  effect  until  they  get  very  bad,  and  yet  they  have 
been  changing  for  many  years.  The  degrees  are  very 
small  on  some,  and  the  degrees  of  change  vary  on  the 
same  foot.  These  variations  depend  on  the  treatment 
the  foot  or  feet  have  had.  They  will  vary  on  every 
foot  on  the  same  horse.  This  is  the  way  some  change 
from  natural.  Some  will  change  in  a  large  degree  in 
twenty-four  hours,  from  many  cj^uses. 

This  old  white  mare  is  one  of  these  cases.  The 
first  cause  was  ignorance.  The  driver  did  not  know 
much  about  a  horse;  if  he  had  he  would  not  have 
abused  her  by  driving  her  ofi  her  legs  on  hard  roads. 
The  concussion  on  her  feet  caused  heat.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  foot  at  the  start  was  out  of  hai-mony  in 
some  degree,  as  all  are  that  have  been  shod  for  several 
years,  as  she  had  been.  The  lever  at  the  toe  was 
some  degree  of  length,  as  all  are,  out  of  harmony ; 
then  kept  in  motion  up  and  down  hills,  on  dry,  hard 
roads,  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  drawing  a  load. 
This  will  cause  some  heat  internally  in  the  foot,  a 
strain  on  the  cords  or  back  tendons.  This  mare  was 
used  badly.  The  owner  well  knew  this.  She  must 
have  rest.  She  is  tied  in  the  barn,  no  care  taken  of 
her  feet,  for  this  reason:  he  did  not  know  it  was 
necessary.  This  mystery  he  had  not  solved.  She  is 
sore  and  stiff.  She  must  not  be  moved  until  she  gets 
better.     The  consequence  is^  when  she  lies  down  the 


THE  horse's  rescue.  213 

weight  oQ  the  center  of  foot,  with  all  this  heat  in  her 
feet,  the  foot  dries  very  fast.  When  it  starts  on  this 
course  the  sole  rises  ;  the  heat  increases  the  more  the 
foot  contracts,  and  in  a  very  short  time  the  horse  is 
completely  thrown  ofi  his  base  and  balance  and 
equilibrium,  and  fastened  there,  and  there  he  will  stay 
until  the  cause  is  removed.  This  is  a  large  degree  of 
change,  and  rather  sudden  for  the  comfort  of  the  horse 
and  his  owner.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  horses  made 
very  stiff  in  driving  twenty  miles  on  hard  roads  with 
a  botched  job  on  the  end  of  the  foot  called  the  toe. 
Do  not  get  too  wise.  You  may  learn  something.  All 
horses  are  in  great  danger  of  being  served  in  this  way, 
and  many  times  worse,  by  ironing  their  feet,  all  super- 
intending and  bossing  this  great  science  and  none 
knowing  but  very  little  or  nothing  about  it.  The 
horse  is  the  sufferer,  and  the  owner  suffers  too.  If  he 
does  not  suffer  with  pain  he  suffers  loss  in  many  ways. 
He  pays  his  money  to  have  his  horses  spoiled.  He 
loses  money  in  this  way.  It  takes  more  feed  to  keep 
a  horse  that  is  a  constant  sufferer  night  and  day. 
They  cannot  perform  as  much  labor  in  any  way,  and 
it  shortens  their  lives.  If  you  start  on  a  journey  it 
will  take  you  longer.  You  are  liable  to  get  ship- 
wrecked at  any  time  by  not  understanding  this 
science.  If  you  change  or  trade  while  on  the  road,  or 
at  home,  this  will  not  help  you  out.  You  will  be 
liable  to  get  wrecked  from  the  same  cause  in  a  short 
time.  I  have  helped  thousands  out  of  this  trouble  in 
my  life.  For  many  reasons  I  know  this  is  not  under- 
stood. The  only  way  out  of  this  trouble  is  to  learn 
these  truths,   every  man   for  himself ;  then  you  will 


214  THE  horse's  rescuk 

know  this  is  the  only  safety.  You  cannot  learn  mncli 
from  ''They  Say."  He  does  not  know  much  about 
the  horse. 

I  must  tell  you  how  I  got  the  worst  wrecked  on  the 
Boad  I  ever  was  in  my  life  in  many  ways.  Some  was 
due  to  listening  to  "  They  Say,"  some  to  a  sneak  thief, 
some  to  not  using  reason  and  judgment  after  my 
judgment  told  me  better.  I  was  twenty-eight  years 
old  at  that  time.  I  carried  on  the  wagon  trade  con- 
nected with  shoeing  the  horse.  My  market  for  some 
of  these  wagons  was  in  Tioga  county,  Pennsylvania. 
The  distance  from  my  place,  where  I  carried  on  this 
business  at  that  time,  was  about  one  hundred  miles. 
It  was  up  and  down  heavy  hills  nearly  all  the  way. 
I  knew  the  road  well.  I  had  taken  wagons  over  this 
road  and  driven  horses.  This  is  the  way  I  nearly 
always  went  for  many  years  before  and  after  this  trip 
on  this  business  and  other.  I  have  business  there 
now,  and  have  had  every  year  since  I  was  twenty-one 
years  old,  sometimes  twice  a  year,  seldom  driving  the 
same  horse  or  horses.  When  I  would  get  home  I 
would  sail  after  these  horses  about  three  hundred 
miles  or  more,  and  not  be  missed  at  home  except  by  a 
few,  and  sail  in  all  right,  no  wreck  on  the  horse.  The 
horses  were  fitted  for  this  journey  in  many  ways.  The 
last  thing  I  did  was  to  prepare  their  feet,  and  that  was 
the  last  thing  I  did  to  them  every  night,  to  see  that 
they  were  all  right,  while  I  was  making  up  this  train 
to  go  over  this  road.  There  were  ten  in  all.  I  had 
ironed  a  heavy  wagon  for  one  of  my  neighbors.  The 
wheels  were  in  the  shop.  This  man  came  in.  He  had 
a  kettle  in  his  hand  and  a  lot  of  rosin.     "  They  say," 


THE  horse's  rescue.  215 

said  he,  "  that  this  is  good  to  prevent  the  spokes  from 
working.  Melt  it  and  pour  it  in  hot,  and  roll  the 
wheel  around.  It  will  run  up  in  the  spokes  and  coat 
the  hub  over  on  the  inside.  That  will  keep  the 
grease  from  g^oing  up  into  the  spokes,  causing  the 
spokes  to  work." 

He  fixed  his  in  this  way.  I,  fool-like,  without  even 
thinking,  fixed  all  of  my  wagons  the  same.  These 
wagons  were  made  up  in  two  trains.  My  team  was  at 
that  time  a  small  pony  team,  a  stallion  and  a  mare.  I 
drove  them  together.  They  were  hardy,  well  fed,  and 
had  had  plenty  of  exercise.  They  were  good  ones, 
tough  and  young.  On  the  rear  of  these  trains  must 
be  a  sulky  and  second  hand  wagon  to  return  in. 
There  was  a  man  who  wanted  to  go  with  his  team  for 
the  pay  and  to  see  the  country.  He  never  had  been 
over  this  road.  I  told  him  it  was  a  hard  trip.  ''  I 
think  your  team,"  said  I,  "taken  up  out  of  the  pas- 
ture, will  give  out  They  are  old,  too,  and  it  is  hot 
weather  in  July." 

He  said  they  could  stand  it.  I  yielded,  and  told 
him  he  must  have  his  horses'  feet  dressed  up  for  this 
trip.  This  I  did  for  him.  The  wagons  were  all 
wooden  axled,  ard  must  all  be  greased.  When  I 
commenced  to  do  this  I  soon  beo^an  to  do  some  bis: 
thinking.  The  rosin  had  got  on  the  boxes,  and  when 
I  put  on  the  wheel  and  turned  it,  it  would  powder  up, 
no  matter  how  small  the  quantity.  It  would  set  the 
wheel  [  I  scraped  and  dug  all  off  that  I  could,  but  I 
could  not  get  it  off.  "  I  shall  have  trouble  from  this 
rosin  business,"  thought  I.  "  It  will  crumble  off  and 
wreck  this  traiii,  just  as  sure  as  it  moves."     I  greased 


216  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

up,  and  hung  a  big  pail  of  grease  on  the  hind  end  of 
the  wagon.  The  last  job  I  did  preparatory  to  this 
sail  was  to  shoe  and  dress  up  my  horses'  feet  the  day 
before  starting,  put  them  in  their  stable,  and  gave 
them  a  good,  soft  bed.  I  had  a  young  man  at  work 
for  me  in  the  shop  ;  the  two  first  letters  of  his  name 
were  Clark  Cheeny.  In  the  morning,  while  I  was 
harnessing  my  horses,  this  young  man  came  to  the 
barn  with  the  shoeing  tools.  I  had  not  looked  at  my 
liorses'  feet.  I  had  just  shod  them,  and  I  did  not 
know  they  had  been  out  of  the  stable.  What's  up? 
I  drove  the  mare  a  little  ways  last  night  and  she  tore 
ojff  a  shoe.  This  was  something  she  had  ne^er  done 
before.  The  shoe  was  nailed,  and  the  nails  put  in  the 
same  holes.  I  stood  all  this  and  more.  If  ever  a 
man  deserved  damning  and  kicking  he  was  one. 
After  I  returned  from  this  trip  I  tracked  up  this  sneak 
to  see  how  far  he  drove  the  mare  that  night.  I  tracked 
him  thirty  miles.  How  much  farther  he  lamed  her 
that  night  I  know  not.  So  much  for  a  sneak  thief.  I 
started  on  this  hurd  trip,  not  in  the  best  of  humor, 
on  account  of  my  mare  having  been  driven  all  night, 
and  I  being  oblige  to  drive  her  all  day. 

I  had  sailed  only  a  few  miles  before  I  heard  some 
of  the  biggest  bugling  I  ever  heard  from  wagons; 
nearly  all  were  playing,  and  all  playing  different 
tunes— all  caused  by  listening  to  what  "They  Say," 
says  without  thinking.  The  horses  had  ajl  they  could 
do  to  draw  the  wagons  on  level  roads.  Going  on  in 
this  way  for  a  short  time,  some  of  the  wheels  refused 
to  turn,, and  slid  on  the  ground.  This  will  not  do;  it 
will  kill  the  horses  and  spoil  the  wagons.     This  is  a 


THE  horse's  rescue.  217 

nice  shipwreck,  and  only  three  miles  sail.  Well,  there 
is  no  other  way  except  rig  up  and  remove  all  the 
cause  I  can  and  sail  on.  It  is  no  small  job  to  take  off 
forty  wheels  and  clean  off  all  this  grease  and  rosin  on 
the  arms  and  in  the  hubs,  and  yet  it  is  the  only  way 
out  of  this  trouble.  I  suppose  I  shall  have  to  learn 
by  experience  like  all  other  heedless  fools.  I  think 
when  I  put  any  more  rosin  in  wagon  hubs  "They 
Say  "  will  know  it.  This  is  the  way  I  reasoned  with 
myself.  It  was  too  late  to  use  judgment  and  sense 
on  this  job.     The  wreck  had  already  happened. 

After  greasing  up,  I  set  sail  again.  It  was  down 
hill  for  a  few  miles,  to  Lake  Cayuga  I  crossed  this 
lake  on  a  ferry-boat.  It  was  small,  and  we  had  to 
make  two  trips  to  get  all  over.  It  had  rained  hard  all 
the  night  before,  and  the  roads  were  somewhat  muddy 
and  slippery.  There  was  no  way  out  of  this  small 
town  except  to  climb  a  long,  steep,  muddy  clay  hill, 
but  it  must  be  done. 

After  the  wagons  had  stood  a  while  it  was  almost 
impossible  for  the  horses  to  start  them.  The  rosin 
had  crumbled  off  and  ground  up  with  the  grease,  and 
I  must  say  it  is  the  poorest  axle  grease  I  ever  had  on 
a  wagon.  I  took  the  lead  with  my  train  and  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  it  about  a  mile  up  this  hill.  After 
waiting  a  long  time  I  saw  the  other  train  coming  with 
only  one  wagon. 

''  Beach,"  said  I,  "  What's  the  i^cket  now  ?  " 

"The  horses  could  not  draw  all  of  the  train.  I 
commenced  to  drop  off  some  and  this  is  all  I  could  get 
up  with.  That  rosin  has  set  the  wheels  on  some. 
They  are  scattered  all  along  down  the  bill." 


218  THE  horse's  rescue. 

" Leave  jour  team,"  said  I.  "I  will  take  mine  and 
we  will  irpair  and  make  up  that  train  again." 

After  greasing  and  cleaning  ofi  rosin,  I  sailed  them 
np  to  the  other  train.  We  were  not  to  the  summit 
vet ;  that  was  two  miles  farther.  After  rigging  up  we 
set  sail  again.  These  wagons  soon  commenced  to  yell 
again.  The  grease  was  all  gone  and  there  was  no  place 
near  to  get  any. 

•'Well,  Beach,  they  will  have  to  yell  until  we  get 
where  we  can  get  some  grease ;  this  darn  rosin  busi- 
ness is  the  biggest  eye-opener  I  have  had  in  some 

time." 

We  doubled  teams  and  drew  them  up  hills,  then 
each  would  take  his  train.  The  horses  could  draw 
them  down  hill  unless  his  train  had  too  many  wheels 
get  set  at  one  time. 

'*It  is  hot,  Beach ;  these  horses  must  rest,  and  these 
wagons  must  all  be  rosined  off  again  and  greased.  I 
am  going  to  try  the  farmers  and  see  if  I  can  get  some 
lard  and  a  little  flour  to  put  with  it.  They  may  not 
want  to  spare  as  much  as  I  want ;  it  will  take  quite  a 
lot,  Beach,  to  grease  all  of  these  wagons,  and  we  want 
some  left  in  case  some  wheels  should  get  set  again. 
We  must  stop  pulling  these  horses  so  or  we  will  kill 
them  all  this  hot  weather.  I  see  my  mare  favors  one 
of  her  forward  legs  or  feet.  She  must  have  hurt  her 
shoulder  pulling  up  that  first  hill.     I  can't  tell." 

We  had  anchored  on  level  ground ;  the  mud  was 
about  two  inches  deep  here,  sticky  clay.  The  wheels 
were  all  loaded.  I  went  to  a  farmer's  house  and 
asked  them  to  sell  me  some  lard  and  flour. 

''How  much  lard  do  you  want?" 


THE   horse's  rescue.  219 

*'I  would  Jike  twenty  or  twenty-five  pounds." 

''  Oh,  we  can  liardly  spate  as  much  as  that." 

I  told  the  lady  m}^  story  about  the  wreck. 

"I  will  pay  yoa  double  price  if  you  have  got  it." 

I  got  the  lard  and  repaired  up  again.  After  a  few 
hours'  wallowing  around  in  mud,  grease,  and  rosin, 
these  wagons  were  getting  play  very  fast  by  friction. 
That  helped  the  horses  some.  The  w^agons  did  not 
receive  much  benefit.  They  ran  better  after  this  last 
treatment,  as  the  yelling  gradually  subsided. 

There  was  another  storm  gradual Ij^  arising.  I  had 
been  watching  that.  If  it  kept  on  increasing  it  would 
completely  shipwreck  this  train.  This  is  the  propell- 
ing power.  In  many  ways  the  mare  was  getting  lamer 
by  degjces.  I  could  not  see  the  cause  in  the  foot; 
the  shoulder  did  not  swell;  that  looked  all  right. 

''Beach,"  I  said,  "We  must  anchor.  These  poor 
horses  look  tired." 

"It  is  not  night  yet." 

"Ko  matter,  they  must  have  rest." 

I  did  not  rest  much  myself;  I  could  see  danger 
ahead.  It  was  not  on  account  of  loss  or  lack  of  mo- 
ney to  see  me  through  ;  I  had  about  five  hundred  dol- 
lars in  my  pocket.  This  article  I  have  found,  when 
travelling,  to  be  the  best  friend  I  ever  had,  and  I  never 
intended  to  get  out  of  it  if  I  could  possibly  help  it. 
That  would  be  the  worst  wreck  I  could  make.  What 
worried  me  was,  I  did  not  want  to  wreck  this  train,  of 
which  I  was  conductor.  After  stabling  the  horses, 
this  rosin  business  had  to  be  looked  to  on  forty 
wheels.  The  yelling  had  quieted  down.  They  had. 
worn  and  cut  so  they  would  not  got  set;  but  there 


220  THE  horse's  rescuk 

was  great  clanger  of  their  cutting  and  wearing  al  lout 
before  I  got  tliem  to  market,  caused  by  this  rosin 
crumbling  off  and  grinding  up  and  setting  some  of  the 
wheels  to  cutting.  At  any  time  and  all  of  the  time,  if 
I  could  have  got  that  old  liar  "  They  Say  "  by  the 
nape  of  the  neck  I  would  have  made  him  yell  for  a 
while,  louder  tlian  these  wagons  did. 

Beach  fed  the  horses.  I  heard  a  racket  in  the  barn, 
and  I  went  to  see  what  was  up.  I  found  Beach  there, 
one  of  his  horses,  the  oldest,  choking,  reeling,  and 
about  to  fall.  She  was  so  old  she  could  not  masticate 
oats.  She  had  been  trying  to  swallow  them  without 
chewing,  and  had  got  choked.  She  succeeded  in 
throwinor  tliem  out  of  her  throat  and  recovered.  I  did 
not  know  she  was  so  old  that  she  could  not  eat  oats, 
until  then. 

"There  is  another  danger  to  be  looked  to.  Beach; 
that  mare  ought  to  be  fed  ground  feed.  This  feed  does 
not  do  her  any  good." 

"Oh,  she  will  go  it.     I  have  seen  her  in   that  fix 

often." 

In  the  morning  we  started  this  train  on  a  new  plan. 
This  was,  to  move  slow.  Motion  creates  heat.  All  is 
out  of  harmony.  The  propelling  power  is  not  fit  to 
run.  When  any  of  these  wheels  get  to  yelling  we 
must  stop  and  rosin  and  grease  them.  If  this  is  not 
done  some  of  these  wagons  will  be  spoiled.  The 
skeins  and  boxes  will  be  cut  all  out. 

In  making  up  this  train  the  stallion  came  out  head 
up,  full  of  life,  ready  for  business;  the  mare  was  lame. 
Beach's  team  looked  shrunken;  heads  down.  We 
moved    on  slowly,  stopping  often  through    tlie    day. 


THE   horse's   rescue.  221 

Whe^  anj  of  the  wheels  set  up  their  yell  we  removed 
the  cause.  The  lameness  increased  in  my  mare  a  lit- 
tle ihroufrh  the  da  v.  I  could  not  see  the  cause.  I 
well  knew  it  was  no  nails  thai  held  the  shoe  on.  She 
was  young.      She  had  a  colt's  foot  on  her,  and  a  good 

one. 

"Beach,  here  is  a  hotel,''  said  I.  '"The  snn  is  two 
hour's  high.  We  must  stop  here  for  the  night.  Switch 
off  beside  the  road.  We  will  drop  these  trains.  These 
horses  are  all  very  tired,  and  we  will  not  kill  them,  if 
it  takes  all  summer  to  get  this  train  through." 

"  Doan,"  replied  Beach,  "I  don't  like  the  looks  of 
thino-s  here.  Why,  look  at  the  sign  ;  it  is  all  daubed 
and  smeared  over  with  something.  Look  over  the 
door;  that  is  all  daubed." 

"Nevermind  that,"  I  rejoined.  "I  am  going  to 
anchor  here  for  the  night.  It  is  a  half  day's  drive  to 
the  next  port  for  our  horses  with  this  train.  It  would 
be  likely  to  kill  some  of  the  horses  to  make  it  to-night. 
Unhook  ;  let  us  get  the  horses  in   the  barn  and  have 


a  rest." 


All  seemed  very  quiet  around  the  barn  and  house. 
The  landlord  was  asleep  on  a  lounge,  but  he  roused 
up  and  showed  us  where  to  put  our  horses.  After 
this  was  done  I  saw  him  get  a  heavy  log  chain  and 
pad-lock  and  go  out  to  the  wagons.  He  locked  two 
wag-ons  tofrether  on  one  of  these  trains.  I  asked  him 
what  he  did  it  for.  He  said  :  "To  keep  folks  from 
stealing  them." 

"I  think  there  is  not  muMi  danger  of  that,"  said  I 
"  They  can  get  all  the  wagons  they  want  now.  There 
are  some  that  are  not  locked.      They  can  take   them. 


222  THE  horse's  rescue. 

Beach,  this  man  is  a  trifle  too  honest.  I  think  it  will 
be  well  enouirh  to  watch  him." 

We  cared  for  the  horses,  making  them  as  comforta- 
ble as  our  surroundings  and  circumstances  would  let 
us  This  landlord  watched  for  an  opportunity  to 
draw  out  Beach.  He  had  noticed  I  was  conductor  of 
this  train  by  hearing  us  talk.  He  inquired  about  my 
circumstances  financially  in  a  round-about  way.  After 
conversing  a  ehort  time  he  asked  Beach  if  I  carried 
much  money  with  me.  Beach  told  him:  "Enough 
to  defray  expenses."  This  was  an  eye-opener  for 
Beach.  He  did  not  sleep  any  that  niglu.  He  said  to 
me:  "There  is  something  rotten  here,  Doan."  Beach 
was  a  man  not  easily  discouraged  and  no  coward,  but 
he  did  not  like  the  surroundings. 

Night  came,  and  we  went  to  bed  ;  that  is,  we  pre- 
tended to.  There  was  no  sleep.  Beach's  head  Was 
out  of  the  window  all  night.  The  racket  commenced 
about  eleven  o'clock,  by  the  barking  of  dogs,  five  or 
six  at  one  time.  This  was  kept  up  all  night,  caused 
by  comers  and  goers.  They  seemed  to  be  on  horse- 
back. The  landlord  was  up  prowling  around,  and  the 
visitors  had  business  in  and  out  of  the  barn  all  night. 
Beach  was  on  the  watch.  He  was  where  he  could  see 
them  come  and  go  from  the  barn.  He  yelled  at  some 
of  them  during  the"  night.  This  hotel,  I  may  say  here, 
was  not  in  a  village.     It  was  in  a  country  place. 

In  the  morning  we  found  our  traps  all  in  their 
places.'  Beach  asked  the  landlord  what  the  racket 
meant  that  we  had  heard  all  night? 

"  Oh,  there  was  a  fellow  who  came  to  borrow  a 
saddle." 


THE   horse's   rescue.  223 

Beach  did  not  swallow  that.  Later  on  he  inquired 
about  this  house,  and  learned  from  some  that  it  was  a 
hotel  for  horse-thieves.  The  horses  seemed  to  feel 
middling  well  in  the  morning,  after  their  long  rest — 
all  but  my  lame  mare.     She  was  getting  very  lame. 

We  moved  on  slowly.  In  the  course  of  the  day  we 
passed  through  a  toll-gate  on  an  old  worn  plank-road 
full  of  broken  planks  and  holes.  I  stopped,  not  want- 
ing to  get  up  any  row  on  the  road  with  any  one.  I 
told  him  this  train  all  belonged  to  me  to  pay  toll  on, 
which  I  well  knew  he  had  no  right  to  take.  I  handed 
him  a  bill.  He  took  out  what  he  pleased.  I  did  not 
look  to  see  how  much  he  did  take.  I  put  t^^e  change 
in  my  pocket  and  moved  on,  the  train  all  following. 
After  "-oinir  about  two  miles  I  heard  a  man  veiling;  I 
loobed  around  ;  I  saw  it  was  the  gate-tender.  It  was 
hot;  he  was  a  short  fat  man;  he  had  heated  himself 
np  bad.  His  face  was  very  r(fd.  He  was  wiping  off 
the  sweat.  He  yelled  at  me,  and  said  I  did  not  pay 
toll,  only  half. 

"  If  you  don't  pay  the  balance,  and  me  for  coming 
after  you  I  will  have  you  arrested  for  running  the 
gate." 

"  I  did  not  run  the  gate,"  I  replied.  **  I  don't  know 
how  much  you  did  take.  How  much  do  you  want 
now  : 

"I  want  one  dollar." 

"I  am  going  to  stop  at  this  hotel  to  feed.  There 
we  can  arrange  this  matter.  There  is  no  hurry.  It  is 
not  necessary  for  you  to  run  yourself  to  death.  In 
the  first  place  I  have  not  driven  on  these  planks.  My 
teams  could  not  draw  these  wagons  over  these  holes. 


224  THE   horse's   rescue. 

How  much  will  it  cost  me  for  running  the  gate,  if  I  do 
not  pay  you  the  dollar?" 

"Twenty-five  dollars." 

"I  think  I  will  not  give  you  anymore  money.  I 
shall  be  back  over  this  road  in  a  few  weeks.  Then  I 
shall  want  to  drive  on  a  trot.  If  you  do  not  have  this 
rubbish  cleared  out  of  the  road  I  will  have  the  stock- 
holders arrested  for  obstructing  the  highway.  It  is 
dangerous  as  it  is." 

After  feeding  and  taking  a  rest  v/e  moved  on,  the 
mare  growing  lamer  all  the,  time.  After  standing,  it 
hurt  her  badly  to  start.  We  went  three  miles  farther. 
Here  was  a  hotel  kept  by  a  fat,  red-faced,  burly-look- 
ing fellow.     We  were  tired.     Beach  says  : 

*'  If  I  had  a  drink  of  good  whisky  I  would  like  it." 

This  was  the  first  time  we  had  called  for  anything 

of  the  kind. 

Said    Beach:     "Cap,    have   you    got    some    good 

whisky  ?" 

"Yes  sir:  I  have."  He  slammed  a  decanter  down 
hard  enough  to  break  a  common  glass  bottle  all  to 
pieces.  "  There  is  some  that  does  not  stink  of  tur- 
pentine." 

We  turned  out  a  little  and  smelt  of  it.  Turpentine 
was  all  it  did  stink  of.  We  smelled  light  of  that  and 
moved  on.  After  traveling  many  miles,  stopping 
often  to  let  the  horses  rest  and  stop  the  yelling  caused 
by  rosin,  we  came  to  the  foot  of  Addison  Hill.  This 
is"  a  Icno-  heavy  hill.  It  is  about  three  miles  from 
base  to  summit. 

"Beach,"  I  remarked,  "this  is  a  settler;  it  is  so 
hot.     The    road    winds    through    the    woods;    not   a 


THE   horse's   rescue.  225 

breath  of  air.  Wlien  we  stop  goitig  up  tliis  hill  we 
will  have  to  block  all  of  the  hind  wheels  on  all  of 
these  wagons,  ortlie  pressure  above  will  back  the  light 
wagons  over  the  blockings.  The  lioi-ses  can't  hold 
them  and  rest.  This  will  be  lively  work  after  you 
singr  out  '  whoa.'  This  is  the  wav  1  have  alwavs  had 
to  do.  A  prop  dragging  does  more  hurt  than  gjod.  It 
will  turn  light  wagons  over.  The  weight  settling  back 
will  raise  up  the  light  wagons  and  throw  them  all 
around  in  manv  w^avs.  We  must  not  pull  these  horses 
more  than  a  rod  at  one  time.  In  this  ■'.^■ay  we  must 
climb  this  hill,  if  we  get  up  it." 

After  working  up  this  hill  about  half  way  I  saw 
'that  one  of  Beach's  horses  was  not  right.  It  was  not 
the  one  that  got  choked.  This  horse  had  stood  it  well 
up  to  this  time.  It  was  hot ;  he  was  overdone  ;  he  had, 
what  is  called  by  some,  the  thumps.  It  is  the  palpi- 
tation of  the  heart. 

"Beach,  we  must  get  these  wagons  out  of  the  road 
and  anchor  here.  That  horse  must  not  be  drawn  anv 
more  now.     He  would  drop  dead  on  this  hili." 

We  blocked  up.  took  off  the  horses,  got  in  the 
woods  in  the  shade,  and  stayed  there  until  it  got 
cooler.  After  resting  a  few  hours  tlie  sun  got  lower, 
and  we  tried  it  again.  This  horse  had  got  over  thump- 
ing, or  his  heart  had.  We  slowly  worked  up  to  the 
summit;  then  it  went  better.  After  about  four  or 
five  miles  we  came  to  the  river  and  pulled  in  at  a 
hotel.  There  we  were  within  fourteen  n.iles  of  the 
port  I  was  sailing  for  with  one  very  In  me  mare.  We 
put  up  for  the  night.  In  the  morning  I  soon  saw  one 
train  wrecked.    My  mare's  leg  was  badly  swelled  from 


226  THE  horse's  rescue. 

lioof  to  top  of  shoulder.  She  stood  with  her  weight 
forward  nil  on  one  foot.  I  moved  her  around.  She 
went  on  three  legs. 

"  Beach,  this  looks  like  a  shipwreck.  Well,  we  can 
sail  some  yet.  You  can  draw  your  train  eight  miles. 
It  will  be  level  that  distance  along  the  river.  Then  it 
will  be  six  miles  over  heavy  hills.  Your  team  cannot 
draw  the  load  up  them.  I  will  make  a  single  harness 
out  of  my  double  harness  and  hitch  the  stallion  single, 
and  lead  the  mare  behind,  and  leave  the  balance  of  my 
train.     This  is  the  best  I  can  do." 

After  rosining  and  greasing,  we  set  sail  again. 
Beach  ahead  now,  I  in  the  rear,  the  mare  with  a  long 
rope  tied  to  her  head,  so  as  to  give  her  plenty  of  room 
she  hobbling  along  on  three  legs.  The  mud  was  deep 
along  the  river.  It  had  rained  nearly  every  day  since 
we  started  ;  showers  many  times  a  day ;  then  it  would 
come  off  hot.  We  moved  slowly,  stopping  often.  In 
time  we  sailed  eight  miles.  Then  we  must  take  leave 
of  the  river  and  climb  hills.  This  cannot  be  done  with 
any  propelling  power  we  have  got.'' 

"Beach,  drop  off  here  all  of  the  wagons  but  one, 
and  we  will  sail  on.  I  think  we  can  get  through  with 
two  wagons.  I  wish  to  make  the  port  I  started  for 
with  some  of  this  train,  if  it  is  wrecked,  as  it  will  be, 
and  badly,  too.  There  we  can  repair  up.  It  is  at  my 
father's  farm.  We  can  turn  out  some  of  these  horses 
and  they  can  rest  up,  that  will  help  them." 

Eeaders,  you  can  see  us  winding  our  way  up  and 
down  the  heavy  hills  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  with 
a  small  part  of  this  wreck.  I  am  going  to  tell  you  the 
cause  as  soon  as  I  find  it.     A  little  before  night  we 


THE     HORSES    RESCUE.  227 

firrlvcd  at  my  father's  house.  This  is  where  I  always 
found  welcome.  AYelcome  was  always  around  iiiei-e 
to  his  children,  of  which  lie  had  not  a  few.  Tnere 
were  eleven  boys  and  two  girls,  scattered  all  over  the 
country.  These  arrivals  were  no  surprise  to  him.  It 
was  a  common  thing  for  some  of  them  to  sail  into  this 
port  days  and  all  times  of  the  night.  Sometimes  four 
and  five  would  be  in  this  port  at  one  lime,  to  rest  up 
and  repair  up  wrecks,  and  it  was  all  free.  Reader,  I 
assure  you  it  took  some  hard  knocks  and  some  hard 
work  to  keep  this  free  port  open.  I  have  sailed  into 
this  port  to  repair  up  many  wrecks,  sailing  over  these 
hills  with  wagons  and  horses.  They  would  happen  in 
some  way  with  all  I  could  do  to  prevenr.  When  we 
arrived  this  time  he  soon  saw  there  was  another  wreck. 
He  was  out  flying  around  (he  was  no  sit-still),  strip- 
ping the  harness  off  the  horses. 

"  Gerard  has  got  his  thumb  in  his  mouth.  That  is 
a  sure  sign  things  are  not  going  to  suit  him." 

'•Father,  this  pony  has  come  this  long  journey,  and 
drawn  heavy  loads.  She  is  growing  worse  all  the 
time,  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  the  cause ;  il 
commenced  the  first  day.  If  I  had  some  shoeing  tools 
I  would  take  off  her  shoe  and  give  her  foot  a  thorough 
examination." 

"Those  can  be  had." 

Frank  was  started  for  the  tools  on  a  run.  Beach's 
horses  were  cleaned  and  turned  out  in  a  shady  pasture.' 
Frank  soon  came  with  the  tools.  I  removed  the  shoe, 
and  commenced  this  search  by  paring  thin  shavings 
off  the  sole  of  the  foot.  I  soon  saw  the  cause  of 
all  this  trouble.     There  was  a  row  of  nearly  square 


228  THE   horse's   rescue, 

spots.     These  formed  a  circle  the  shape  of  the  shoe, 

and  the  spots  were  the  same  distance  apart  that  the 

holes  in  the  shoe  were.     I  took  my  knife  and  cut  in  a 

little,  and  the  matter  spurted  out  three  feet.     I  cut  the 

other   three  open  in    the   same    way.     They  all    dis- 
charged   in    about   the    same  way.     These   spots,    or 

places  where  these  nails  went  in   her  feet,  were  under 

the  shoe  when  it  was  on. 

^'It  was  a  wonder  she  did  not  die  with  lockjaw. 
If  I  bad  a  pint  of  tar  I  could  soon  make  her  quite 
easy  from  pain." 

Frank  was  started  on  a  three-mile  sail,  on  a  run. 
He  soon  came  back  with  the  tar.  While  he  was  gone 
I  made  a  boot  for  her  foot.  It  had  a  sole  on  it,  and 
laced  up.  I  put  in  plenty  of  tar,  put  on  this  boot,  laced 
it  up,  secured  well,  and  turned  her  out  in  the  pasture. 
One  of  my  brothers  took  his  team  and  we  pulled  in 
the  first  wrecked  train.  The  other  train  I  pulled  in 
two  at  a  trip,  wnth  the  stallion.  These  wagons  all  had 
to  be  washed.  They  were  all  one  complete  daub  of 
mud.  They  had  worn  all  of  the  play  they  would 
need.  Rosin  is  the  poorest  axle  tree  grease  in  the 
world  ;  that  I  know.  I  have  had  a  trial  of  it.  I  never 
tried  the  best.  I  have  seen  it  advertised.  Beach  spent 
ten  days  viewing  the  country  while  waiting  for  his 
poor  old  horses  to  rest  and  recover  what  they  had  lost 
from  many  causes,  preparatory  to  sailing  this  road 
"over  again.  One  he  hitched  to  the  sulky,  led  the 
oldest  behind,  and  sailed  out  on  Addison  Hill ;  at  the 
very  spot  where  the  one  he  was  then  driving  gave  out 
with  the  palpitation  of  the  heart,  the  one  that  he 
led  dropped   dead  in  the  road  the  first  day.     Another; 


THE  horse's  rescue.  2*29 

wreck.  She  was  removed  out  of  the  highway  and 
we  sailed  on.  In  a  short  tinae  the  other's  heart  began 
to  thump,  and  he  had  to  stop  then.  In  this  way,  after 
many  days,  he  arrived  home.  This  horse,  before  we 
started,  was  quite  a  good  farm  horse.  He  can  never 
endure  any  more  hard  work.  Beach  went  with  me 
on  another  trip  a  few  years  after,  over  this  same  road. 
We  got  through  better;  we  had  learned  by  experi- 
ence. I  was  obliged,  with  my  small  pony  stallion,  to 
draw  all  of  these  wao^ons  around  over  heavv  hills  to 
market  them.  They  were  a  hard-looking  lot  to  sell.  I 
was  obliged  to  trade  and  traffic  some  for  cattle  and 
then  sell  them — horses  the  same ;  no  rest  for  me. 
They  did  not  shine  quite  so  much  as  they  did  when  I 
started.  A  little  varnish  makes  a  vast  difference,  in 
some  folks'  judgment,  in  many  ways  and  about  many 
things.  They  will  bite  a  shiny  bait  very  quick.  It 
will  attract  their  attention.  My  wagons  looked  like 
second-hand.  Well,  they  were,  and  I  knew  it;  but  I 
had  as  good  a  right  to  sell  second-hand  wagons  as 
others  for  all  I  could  get,  and  at  it  I  went.  After  six 
weeks  hard  work  they  were  disposed  of  in  many 
ways. 

This  mare's  foot  must  be  looked  to  to  see  what  condi- 
tion it  is  in.  The  boot  is  on  and  has  been  for  six 
weeks.  She  has  been  over  her  lameness  for  a  long 
time.  She  has  run  in  the  pasture.  The  first  treat- 
ment, when  I  put  this  boot  on,  is  all  she  ever  had  to 
her,  and  it  has  been  six  weeks.  I  am  going  to  sail 
this  road  over  again.  The  last  thing  to  be  done, 
always,  with  me,  preparatory  to  a  sail  on  land  with 
horses,  is  to  prepare  their  feet  all  at  one   time ;  no 


230  THE  horse's  rescue. 

botching  and  hurting  about  this  business  on  the 
horse's  f  oot-at  any  time  on  my  horses  or  on  any  man's 
horse.  This  is  a  rule  I  always  have  adhered  to.  The 
best  I  can  do,  it  will  be  bad  enough  for  tlie  horse  in  a 
short  time.  I  removed  the  boot;  the  foot  had  grown, 
that  is,  the  hoof  had.  There  had  not  been  any  wear 
on  the  hoof  on  this  foot  on  account  of  the  boot,  and  it 
had  useless  hoof  on.  That  did  not  effect  her  much  in 
pasture.  I  pulled  all  of  this  mare's  shoes  off  when  I 
turned  her  out.  This  is  the  way  to  do  with  all  horses. 
Examining  this  mare's  foot,  the  old  sole  was  all  loose, 
or  nearly  so.  I  took  it  all  off.  Underneath  there  was 
a  new  sole  grown.  At  this  time  and  stage  of  growth 
it  was  white  and  soft  and  very  tender.  There  was  no 
contraction.  The  foot  had  not  had  iron  nailed  on  it. 
It  liad  its  libertv. 

I  must  get  back  to  my  shop  and  see  to  business 
there.  This  foot  must  be  fixed  and  this  tender  sole 
and  growth  must  be  protected.  If  this  is  mutilated 
now  and  she  gets  fever  in  her  hoof  it  will  ruin  her. 
She  must  have  something  to  protect  the  sole  for  this 
drive — a  wide  web,  and  a  very  thin,  light  shoe.  It  is 
something  of  a  chore  to  fix  this  foot  up,  to  keep  all 
protected,  and  keep  the  mare  sailing  on  the  road  and 
not  spoil  her;  and  yet  it  can  be  done,  and  this  is  the 
way  to  do  it :  The  dirt  and  sand  must  all  be  kept  out 
of  the  foot.  It  will  be  necessary  to  have  a  piece  of 
calf-skin  larsre  enouo;h  to  cover  over  the  bottom  of  the 
foot  and  come  up  above  the  ankle,  so  as  to  form  a 
boot  leg.  For  fear  this  might  wear  through  on  the 
bottom  and  let  in  dirt  and  gravel,  there  must  be 
another  thicker  piece,  the  size  of  the  foot,  put  over 


THE    horse's   rescue.  2C1 

that,  and  the  shoe  nailed  over  all  It  requires  some 
patience  and  skill  to  nail  this  shoe  on  the  foot  and  get 
it  all  in  good  shape,  and  not  prick  the  foot  with  nail?, 
with  only  one-quarter  of  an  inch  shell  to  drive  nails  in, 
and  that  all  covered  up  out  of  sight  with  leather;  and 
yet  this  was  done.  I  have  bent  over  thousands  of  horses' 
feet,  fixing  them  in  this  way  and  many  other  ways, 
until  I  almost  see  stars.  After  getting  this  shoe  on 
nicely  there  must  be  some  tar  warmed,  not  hot ;  I  do 
not  w^ant  to  spoil  the  new  growth  on  this  tender  foot 
by  burning  in  any  way.  This  damned  burning  busi 
ness  I  am  down  on,  on  horses  and  on  everything  else. 
That  belongs  back  in  the  dark  ages.  I  poured  a  little 
tar  in  at  the  heel,  pulled  up  the  calf-skin  around  the 
ankle,  laid  it  in  plaits,  and  sewed  it.  No  tying  to  shut 
off  the  circulation.  It  took  me  some  time  to  fix  this 
foot.  There  are  many  things  to  look  to  working  on 
horses'  feet.     The  foot  was  not  contracted. 

This  job  suits  me.  The  frog  has  a  rest  in  the  center 
on  the  ground.  I  am  ready  to  sail  again.  This  treat- 
ment on  the  foot  where  nails  have  been  driven  in  the 
foot  by  accident  or  any  other  way  is  good.  I  always 
made  a.  success  in  this  way.  Care  must  be  token  of 
the  foot  or  it  will  contract.  That  will  spoil  the  foot 
and  horse  at  the  same  time.  I  have  seen  lots  of  horses 
spoiled  in  this  way  by  not  taking  proper  care  of  the 
foot.  If  it  should  contract,  spread  it,  and  hold  it  out. 
It  is  easy  to  do  this. 

I  sailed  home  ;  no  wreck  on  the  way ;  not  a  limp  on 
that  booted  foot,  and  I  left  it  on  until  the  boot  wore 
through.  B}^  that  tim^the  foot  had  got  quite  hard.  I 
kept  it  protected  for  somye  time.     I  am  going  to  tell 


282  THE   horse's   rescue. 

yoa  the  cause  of  nearly  all  this  trouble  and  sliipwreck. 
Part  was  my  fault.  That  rosin  business  was  my  fault. 
I  listened  to  that  old  liar.  "Thev  Sav."  I  did  not  use 
reason  until  it  was  too  late.  I  think  Beach's  horses 
would  have  made  tliat  trip  if  it  had  not  been  for  rosin. 
They  were  lugged  to  death.  ^J^here  was  no  let-up  on 
them.  They  had  to  draw  up  and  down  grade  nearly 
all  the  route,  and  no  help  for  it.  They  were  not  fed 
up  for  such  a  trip,  and  were  old ;  and  yet  we  could 
have  favored  them  and  would,  and  we  did  all  we  could. 
Rosin  would  block  the  wheels,  and  blocked  the  game. 
Part  of  this  wreck  was  caused  by  a  sneak  thief,  taking 
my  mare  out  of  my  stable  in  the  night,  lambing  her 
around  all  night,  tearing  off  or  twisting  around  her 
shoe,  and  causing  her  to  drive  four  nails  into  the  bot- 
tom of  her  foot.  That  was  the  biggest  eye-opener  I 
ever  had  at  that  time.  I  had  had  some  befoi'e,  one 
about  nine  months  previous  to  this.  That  caused  me 
to  stare,  but  as  it  is  on  another  subject  I  will  save  that 
for  another  book,  which  I  intend  to  write.  These  eye- 
openers  caused  me  to  begin  to  think  more  and  use  more 
reason  and  all  the  good  judgment  and  good  sense  I 
could  command  about  all  thincrs.  I  am  usincrmore  of 
these  articles  now  than  I  ever  used  in  all  my  life,  and 
vet  I  make  some  mistakes.  These  wrecks  and  mis- 
takes  have  all  been  lessons  to  me.  It  has  been  so  all 
through  life — wreck,  repair,  and  sail  What  is  the  use 
of  getting  scared  ? 

Let  us  go  on  with  this  horse  sail.  You  cannot  ex- 
pect to  own  and  drive  horses  without  having  some 
lame  in  some  way  and  in  many  ways.     The  only  thing 


THE   horse's   rescue.  233 

we  can  do  is  to  remove  all  the  cause  we  can,  and  keep 
it  removed. 

It  has  been  some  time  since  you  have  heard  from 
the  old  white  mare.  She  is  doint:^  finely.  She  is  im- 
proving all  the  time.  Her  shoulders  are  nearly  alike. 
When  she  trots  fast  she  seems  a  little  stiff.  I  am  not 
going  to  move  out  of  this  town,  on  account  of  this  old 
mare.  She  is  far  better  off  now  than  I  expected  her 
to  become  when  I  commenced  on  her.  I  am  well  paid 
for  my  labor  if  she  never  improves  any  more.  I  have 
worked  on  this  mare  five  months.  It  is  March  now.  1 
shall  soon  want  to  sell  her.  She  is  of  no  use  to  me 
any  more.  It  will  be  a  rather  hard  job  to  sell  her,  for 
she  is  very  old.  I  must  let  her  go  if  I  give  her  away. 
They  will  not  know  this  mare  in  this  town.  She  has 
not  been  seen  in  a  long  time.  She  does  not  look  like 
that  old  mare  I  had  towing  around  the  streets  last  fall, 
and  no  argument  can  be  used  to  convince  them,  and  I 
shall  not  try.  I  want  her  off  my  hands.  I  am  going 
to  start  this  science  in  another  place,  if  I  can.  This 
has  been  a  tough  town  to  work  on  the  horse.  It  has 
about  killed  me.  I  have  taught  all  of  the  time,  and 
no  one  seems  to  be  interested  in  my  science,  that  is, 
to  learn  it.  I  cannot  get  their  attention  except  when 
I  am  bugling  in  the  streets,  and  that  has  become  a 
common  thing  with  them.  They  do  not  bcem  to  un- 
derstand what  I  am  trying  to  do.  They  stare  a  little 
and  go  about  their  business,  unless  I  set  up  a  yell. 
Then  they  go  for  me : 

*'Say,  Doan,  what  do  you  do  for  a  horse  that  has 
got  a  sore  neck?" 

"  Where  is  your  horse  ?" 


234  THE  horse's  rescue. 

m 

"Sn  the  barn  over  here  a  little  wav." 

"I  cannot  tell  until  I  see  the  horse." 

''  Come,  go  over  and  see  him." 

*'  I  will  go  with  you." 

After  travelling  about  half  a  mile — *' It's  that  big 
gray  ;  his  neck  is  awful  sore,  and  has  been  a  long 
time.  I  have  used  lots  of  stuff  on  it.  I  can't  heal 
it  up." 

"  It  is  chawed  up  ;  that  is  certain." 

"  Now  what  would  you  do  for  that?" 

''I  would  remove  the  cause  very  quickly  if  he  was 
my  horse,  and  3'ou  can  do  that  as  well  as  I." 

"What  would  vou  do?" 

"  I  would  take  off  that  collar  and  haims,  the  weiirht 
off  his  neck  ;  wash  his  neck  clean  with  castile  soap, 
grease  it  w^iih  butter  or  lard,  castor  oil,  or  sweet  oil, 
any  of  these  things  will  make  it  feel  better.  It  would 
get  w^ell  v/ithout  anything  after  the  cause  is  re- 
moved." 

The  fact  is,   ignorance  is   the  greatest  drawback  a 

man  ever  had      This  team  of  horses  was  not  very  well 

matched.     As  for  size,  one  was  a  small,  low  pony,  the 

other  was  a  tall,  ranev  horse.  The  tonf^fueof  the  wasfon 

was  heavy  enough  for  an  ox-cart;  the  yoke  was  very 

heavy  ;  the  breast-straps  were  buckled  up  short  on  the 

tall  horse  in  such  a  way  that  he  had   to  hold  at  least 

two-thirds  of  this  weight  on  his  neck.      The  collar  was 

a  small,  nearly  worn  out  thing,  cut   apart  at  the  top 

and   let  down,  with    no  pad.      IHie  collar  lacked  five 

inches  of   reaching  to  the  top  of  the  neck;  the  hames 

were  drawn  tight  together  with  a  hard  strap,  and  that 
v/as  twisted  at  that.     I  told  liim  to  remove  all  of  this 


THE  horse's  rescue.  285 

rubbish,  and  keep  it  off,  and  his  horse's  neck  would 
get  well  in  a  very  short  time  ;  then  put  something  on 
him  fit  for  a  horse  to  work  in,  and  if  you  must  use 
that  cart-tongue  and  ox-yoke,  there  are  plenty  of 
hickory  saplings  ;  cut  one,  run  it  under  the  forward 
axle,  bend  it  down  and  strap  it  to  the  tongue.  That 
■will  take  two-thirds  of  the  weight  off  these  poor 
horses'  necks.  What  is  the  use  of  these  horses  stand- 
ing tied  all  day  to  posts  with  this  weight  on  their 
necks?  It  gets  painful.  lalw^ays  keep  all  the  weight 
off  my  horses'  necks  that  I  can.  It  is  not  much 
trouble,  and  if  it  is  it  will  pay  you,  and  save  your 
horses  suffering  more  than  you  are  aware  of.  They 
will  endure  more  ;  their  necks  will  keep  their  shape, 
and  will  not  get  sore  if  they  have  a  good  collar  well 
fitted,  and  hames  to  fit  them.  You  cannot  have  nice 
horses  and  have  them  all  chawed  up  with  rubbish  for 
harness. 

"Say,  Doan,"  says  another,  "my  mare  is  getting 
wind-puffs  on.     What  do  you  do  for  them?" 

"  Keep  the  horse  natural ;  that  is  the  way  I  do  it." 

"You're  a  good  talker." 

The  fact  was  I  was  getting  very  tired  talking,  and 
keeping  so  many  horses  all  sailing,  doing  all  of  the 
work,  but  very  little  pay.  I  begun  to  get  a  little  sour. 
I  could  not  help  it.  They  did  not  use  and  take  care 
of  their  horses  as  w^ell  as  I  did,  and  the}^  could  spoil 
them  faster  than  I  could  cure.  I  am  ni^t  going  to 
give  up  this  horse  figlit  yet.  I  am  going  to  come  out 
with  this  old  white  mare.  I  will  give  them  one  good 
surprise  before  I  leave  this  town.  These  are  facts  I 
am  writing.     They  are  no  dreams  or  fictitious  tales. 


236  THE    HORSE'S    RESCUE. 

I  dressed  up  this  old  mare  a  little  for  this  surprise. 
She  was  fat  and  clean  :  not  a  stain  on  her.  I  kept  her 
so  all  of  the  time.  She  did  not  stand  m  the  stable  to 
do  this,  she  had  been  driven  nights,  not  to  deaib, 
then  half  starved.  She  had  the  best  of  care  all  of  this 
time  in  all  ways.  I  had  been  in  this  barn  with  her 
nights  for  nearly  six  months,  more  than  half  of  my 
time.  Of  course  I  was  not  always  to  work  on  her. 
Looking  at  her  I  cannot  tell  why  I  did  this,  only  I  was 
pleased  with  the  result.  It  was  a  big  thing.  She 
looked  young  around  her  head.  Her  eyes  are  large, 
bright,  and  full  now.  The  skin  is  filled  out  plump 
with  flesh.  She  shows  no  wrinkles  around  the  nose; 
she  never  did  much,  like  some  horses.  She  is  full  of 
life  ,  she  looks  a  little  wild  out  of  her  eyes.  I  cleaned 
and  combed  her  tail.  She  had  a  long  tail  that  almost 
touched  the  floor.  Her  mane  had  grown,  though  it 
looked  a  little  ragged  where  the  collar  had  chawed  it 
before  I  got  her.  I  drove  her  in  breast  collar.  I 
wanted  to  give  her  neck  a  chance  to  fill  up.  I  was 
doing  my  best  on  this  old  mare  to  please  myself,  and 
at  my  own  expense,  and  it  was  no  business  of  any 
man.  I  combed  and  parted  her  foretop,  braided  it  to 
keep  it  out  of  her  eyes,  and  braided  ribbons  in  so  as 
to  make  tassels.  This  I  always  do  on  my  horses  in 
hot  weather.  I  do  not  want  my  hair  hanging  in  and 
over  my  eyes.  I  cannot  see  as  well.  Besides,  it  will 
annoy  a  horse,  and  cause  him  to  toss  his  head  when  he 
gets  sweaty.  I  put  on  a  new  harness,  hitched  to  a 
light  buggy,  and  sailed  out.  After  driving  a  while  on 
the  ourskirts  of  the  town  I  sailed  down  Main  street. 
It  so  happened  there  was  a  band  of  musicians  blowing 


THE     HORSES    KESCl  E.  237 

their  bagles.  This  mare  liked  music;  it  waked  her 
up  some.  She  put  on  more  style  on  that  account,  and 
vet  I  did  not  attract  much  attention  ;  neither  did  the 
horse.  After  driving  around  this  town  a  few  hours  I 
did  not  seem  to  surprise  any  one  ;  then  I  began  to  get 
surprised  myself.  I  talked  with  some;  they  did  not 
know  this  mare.  There  was  only  four  in  this  town 
that  knew  this  mare,  and  no  argument  could  convince 
them  that  it  was  the  same  old  mare  I  led  around  that 
town  six  months  previous,  and  talked  in  many  places 
and  told  them  I  was  going  to  try  to  cure  her  without 
medicine  or  mutilating  her  in  any  way.  I  tcld  them 
thev  would  not  know  her,  and  they  did  not.  Doctor 
Woodrough's  residence  and  mine  joined.  George,  his 
son,  was  a  horse-trainer  by  profession.  His  brother 
was  around  the  stables.  These  three  men  knew  what 
I  was  doing,  and  trying  to  do.  Our  barns  joined.  I 
made  the  fourth  man  that  knew  this  mare  in  this 
town.  They  had  seen  her  often,  and  watched  the 
change.  While  driving  around  this  town  I  passed  a 
grocery.  There  were  several  standing  around.  The 
Woodrough  boys  were  there.  They  saw  me  pass. 
Says  George  :  "  There  goes  Doan  with  that  old  mare 
lie  had  towing  around  here  last  fall." 

I  overheard  them  talking,  but  I  did  not  stop.  It 
was  no  use.  I  sailed  on.  George  and  his  brother 
got  up  quite  a  racket  about  it.  They  told  me  these 
men  said  this  mare  I  was  driving  was  a  colt.  I  had 
let  that  old  mare  go  long  ago.  They  would  bet 
twentv-five  dollars  it  was  not  the  same  old  mare.  The 
boys  were  ready  to  bet  with  them,  but  it  turned  out 
all  wind,  as  it  usually  did.     I  always   had   money  to 


288  THE  hosre's  rescue. 

back  up  this  great  science,  and  have  got  some  now. 
There  is  no  danger  of  losing  on  mj  side.  That  I  well 
know.  After  all  this  hard  winter's  work  only  a  few 
have  learnt  anything,  for  this  reason,  they  cannot  see 
as  I  have  done  an3^thing  on  that  old  mare  I  had  last 
fall.  She  is  changed  so  her  identity  is  forever  lost  to 
them.  They  can  see  nothing  but  that  old  mare  I 
was  towing  around  last  fall,  and  they  cannot  see  her. 
I  can  see  them  both  at  the  same  time.  With  science 
I  can  change  young  horses  in  a  very  few  days  so 
much  their  owners  would  not  know  them  if  I  did  not 
tell  them  anything  about  it.  They  dare  not  swear 
it  was  their  horse,  for  this  reason.  I  have  been  called 
a  dangerous  and  bad  man  ;  some  have  told  me  they 
would  not  dare  take  their  horses  in  my  shop.  Such 
cowards  must  drive  stiS  horses.  I  have  had  horses  so 
lame  and  sti£E  they  could  hardly  move ;  if  they  did  it 
hurt  them  very  bad — brought  to  me  to  cure.  Before 
I  was  allowed  to  commence  on  them  I  must  give  se- 
curity three  and  four  times  the  horse's  worth,  for  fear 
I  might  spoil  them.  I  would  like  some  of  these 
afraid  and  cowardlv  men  to  tell  me  how  it  would  be 
possible  to  spoil  one  of  these  horses.  They  are  already 
spoilt,  and  some  have  been  for  many  years.  They  can 
be  made  worse  by  these  effect  doctors  in  many  ways, 
and  are,  and  they  are  paid  well  for  doing  it.  I  never 
heard  of  one  case  in  my  life  where  they  were  asked  to 
cive  security  if  they  killed  these  horses  burning  and 
mutilating  them.  Some  died  with  the  lockjaw,  caused 
by  seatons  being  put  in  their  shoulders.  Some  do  get 
killed  by  these  effect  doctors ;  some  stand  the  torture 


THE  hokse's  rescue  239 

well.  It  is  snrprising  how  much  thej  can  stand  of 
this  treatment  and  live  and  work,  their  feet  murdered 
to  death  at  the  same  time.  My  God  !  they  must  be 
touuh. 

Poor  old  graj,  vre  must  soon  part, 

To  do  tliis,  it  will  almost  break  my  heart ; 

We  have  roamed  together  almost  night  and  day, 

From  the  mill  I  have  carried  middlings  and  given  you  good  hay. 

Tins  is  hard  for  both  you  and  rae; 

To  help  other  poor  horses  tliere  is  no  other  way  that  I  can  see. 

Thia  great  discovery  I  must  introduce; 

There  arc  thousands  likts  you  suileriijg  the  same  abuse. 

I  have  clianged  you  back  as  your  creator  intended  you  to  be; 

3f  there  is  any  defect  in  this  job  they  cannot  see. 

Ko  mercy  to  you  they  will  show, 

Tliroiigh  deep  mud  and  snow  you  will  have  to  go; 

It,  Avill  not  be  long,  this  abuse  you  will  have  to  endure, 

You  TO  getting  %)\d]  your  time  is  most  out,  that  is  sure. 

They  are  such  poor  ju'.Jges  of  species  of  your  kind, 

They  cannot  tell  if  you  are  old,  stiff,  lame,  or  blind. 

On  the  road  they  will  pound  you  through 

Night  and  day,  with  or  without  a  shoe; 

If  any  shoes  they  do  put  on, 

ThevVo  often  a  thousand  times  tvorse  than  none. 

Poor  old  mare,  after  you  I  have  sold. 

On  you  I  can  not  liave  any  more  control. 

You  will  have  to  take  your  chances  as  all  others  do; 

I  may  never  hav  you  again  to  shoe. 

Up  and  down  hills  you  will  liave  to  go. 

With  all  lengths  of  levers  on  your  toe. 

This  pain  and  suffering  your  driver  cannot  feel; 

Its  effect  extends  from  top  of  shoulder  to  the  heel. 

If  voti  could  talk  and  tell  them  wiiere  the  cause  all  laid. 

Then  to  piirt  wnli  you  I  would  not  be  so  much  afraid; 

But  as  this  coraplieated  matter  now  stands. 

There  is  no  safety  in  any  man's  hands. 

The  trouble  with  your  feet  will  not  be  all  you  will  have  to  endure, 

You  will  have  to  sleqp  on  piles  of  stinking,  rotten  mauurn. 


240  THE   horse's  rescue. 

How  all  this  trouble  and  suffering  can  be  overcome 
Is  more  than  I  can  tell,  j^our  drivers  are  so  dumb. 
Nearly  all  of  j^our  fellow-creatures  are  in  the  same  plight, 
The  same  as  3-ou,  they  are  obliged  to  suffer  day  and  night. 
"With  sore  cords,  pains,  and  aches  in  their  feet, 
Some  are  so  bad  tbey  cannot  stjmd  long  enough  to  eat. 
I  would  like  to  relieve  the  suffering  of  nil  of  your  kind; 
How  to  do  it  I  cannot  tell,  thej''  all  seem  so  blind. 
This  is  the  reason  why  I  put  you  away, 
Is  to  see  if  I  can  incroduce  this  some  other  way. 
On  all  of  the  centers  I  have  equalized  your  weight, 
Taken  off  the  toe-lever,  and  made  your  feet  mates; 
And  put  the  structure  of  your  foot  all  in  harmouy  of  action, 
And  it  would  stay  so  if  it  w'eren't  for  run-over  feet,  leverage,  and  con- 
traction. 
By  ironing  the  feet  this  cannot  be  prevented 
With  any  steel  or  iron  shoe  that  man  has  ever  invented. 
The  dangers  that  you  are  surrounded  with  are  many ; 
1  do  not  know  as  I  can  help  you  to  steer  clear  of  any. 
That  old  ditch  called  the  canal  is  close  by ; 
That  is  wliere  old  horses  like  you  are  taken  to  die. 
When  horses  like  you  have  been  crippled  and  old, 
To  go  on  the  canai  then  thej'  are  sold. 
To  last  one  trip  is  sometimes  all  they  care, 
la  doing  this  they  are  st -ipped  of  flesh,  hide,  and  hair. 
I  have  seen  them  in  herds  plodding  their  way 
Toward  this  ditch,  there  to  end  up  their  day. 
"When  you  were  young  and  limber  you  had  better  homes, 
Now  you  are  stiff,  you  must  have  all  the  flesh  chawed  off  your  bones. 
This  is  the  best  place  for  that  that  can  be  found, 
Search  where  you  will,  the  world  all  round. 
It  serves  all  the  same,  young,  limber,  stiff,  or  blind; 
A  worse  place  for  a  horse  or  a  mule  you  cannot  find. 
It  galls  and  chafes  them  both  fore  and  aft, 
All  caTised  by  so  much  side  draft. 

Horses  on  this  ditch  can  never  travel  and  draw  on  a  straight  line. 
If  men  had  this  work  to  do  it  would  be  tedious  they  would  find. 
Ihis  side  draft  can  never  be  overcome,  this  is  sure — 
Remove  the  cause,  no  medicine  is  required  to  perform  the  cure. 
Water  to  walk  on  by  man  or  beast  the  creator  never  made, 


THE  horse's  rescue.  241 

In  that  "we  have  to  swim,  drown,  or  wade. 

In  order  to  do  away  with  this  side  draft  that  galls  them  so 

lu  the  center  of  this  ditch  and  water  thej  would  have  to  go ; 

If  the  water  was  shallow  so  they  could  wade  and  not  be  drowned. 

Then  in  this  case  they  would  always  be  aground; 

If  the  water  was  deep  enough  for  the  craft  to  float, 

Tliese  poor  horses  could  not  swim  and  draw  a  loaded  boat 

I  cannot  see  any  argument  in  favor  of  this  ditch  use ; 
It  always  has  been  a  great  place  poor  horses  and  mules  to  abuse. 
Their  sufEeiing  with  pen  and  ink  I  cannot  portray ; 
I  think  tliis  old  ditch  ought  to  be  done  away, 
For  many  other  reasons  besides  the  horse's  abuse. 
It's  had  its  day  and  outlived  its  use. 
It  always  was  a  center  for  corruption  and  crime; 
It's  outlived  its  day  and  had  its  time. 
It  always  has  been  a  slow-poke  of  a  way  to  travel  at  best 
In  ray  boyhood  days  I  took  it  in  my  head  to  go  "West. 
On  this  stinking  ditch  four  hundred  miles  I  traveled; 
It  was  lock  up  hill,  lock  down,  in  no  place  level. 
All  this  long  sail  my  fare  I  paid, 
•  And  vet  more  than  half  of  it  on  foot  I  made. 
Sometimes  I  would  be  many  miles  ahead 
Viewing  the  country,  sitting  on  verandahs  in  the  shade. 
You  may  call  it  what  you  will,  good  or  bad  luck. 
Every  few  days  ail  these  crafts  in  the  mud  are  stuck. 
The  cause  of  all  this  shipwreck  was  many  miles  away; 
No  one  could  tell  how  long  in  this  stinking  mud  they  would  have  to 

stay. 
Of  all  the  nuisances  that  ever  w^ere  on  the  face  of  this  earth 
This  old  stinking  ditch  called  the  canal  is  the  worst 
All  must  wait  for  the  breach  to  be  repaired ; 
These  poor  horses  and  mules,  0  my  Godl  how  they  fared! 
In  mud,  cold,  and  sleet,  necks  girdled  clear  around, 
Obliged  10  stand  up  and  sleep,  no  place  fit  ta  lie  down. 
In  its  day  it  might  have  been  of  use  if  they  could  have  used  other 

power ; 
As  it  has  been  and  now  is,  on  them  is  only  slaughter  and  devour, 
To  navigate  this  old  ditch  with  this  power\or  any  other 
It  always  would  be  crowded  with  wrecks  and  bother. 


242  THE  horse's  rescue. 

My  object  in  going  West  was  the  country  to  view ; 

Of  course  I  wanted  to  see  all  that  I  traveled  through, 

I  was  green,  of  course,  as  all  new-beginners  must  be, 

But  experience  soon  taught  rae  down  in  this  ditch  I  could  not  SCG. 

Down  in  this  small,  stinking  cabin  I  cannot  stay. 

If  I  do  all  of  my  money  and  time  will  be  th-rovvn  away. 

The  next  course  for  me,  I  think,  to  pursue 

"Will  be  to  go  on  deck,  there  I  can  have  a  better  view. 

There  in  the  scorching  sun  I  seated  myself  on  a  box ; 

In  a  very  short  time  my  head  received  an  awful  knock. 

After  my  brains  were  Jiearly  knocked  out, 

"  A  bridge  ahead!"  I  heard  four  or  five  shout. 

These  arches  are  quite  thick  across  this  old  stinking  pool, 

A  man  will  soon  get  his  eyes  open  unless  he  is  a  fool. 

Before  lie  has  traveled  on  this  ditch  very  far 

He  will  soon  learn  these  bridges  to  beware. 

All  was  new  to  me,  I  was  always  gaping  around, 

"  Lay  down  there,  unless  you  want  jour  bones  ground," 

As  quick  as  thought  I  ducked  my  head  down  ; 

This  was  a  narrow  escape  from  being  killed  or  drowned. 

I  do  not  want  to  be  drowned  in  stinking  water  like  this; 

It's  unsafe,  I  know,  but  I  will  run  a  little  more  risk. 

I  have  paid  my  fare  through  on  this  boat, 

And  I  am  going  to  keep  track  as  long  as  there  is  a  plank  to  float. 

This  is  rather  tough  to  sit  here  in  the  hot  sun  and  heat, 

And  see  sore  horses  whipped,  pounded,  and  beat 

This  craft,  too,  moves  at  such  a  very  slow  rate, 

If  I  was  in  a  hurry  it  would  be  tedious  to  wait. 

While  seated  on  the  stern  of  the  boat,  looking  about, 
I  heard  another  yell,  "  Bridge  ahead!  look  out!" 
Nearly  all  of  the  boat  under  the  bridge  had  passed. 
As  quick  as  thought,  my  safety  was  the  bridge  to  grasp. 
This  I  very  quickly  saw,  to  save  my  life,  must  be  done. 
The  craft  moved  on ;  over  the  center  of  this  ditch  I  hung. 
In  those  days  I  was  young,  resolute,  strong,  and  spry. 
If  I  lose  my  hold  it  will  be  wade,  swim,  or  die. 
Over  the  bridge-rail,  heels  over  head,  I  went. 
By  this  time  I  hud  thought  my  money  was  foolishlj-  spent. 
If  I  do  not  keep  my  eyes  open,  and  a  better  look-out,         » 


THE   horse's   rescue.  243 

I  shall  get  killed  or  drowned  before  I  get  to  the  end  of  this  route. 
On  the  sea  of  life  we  must  all  sail  ; 
t  is  no  kind  of  use  to  bawl,  weep,  or  wail. 

I  am  going  to  try  the  tow-path  awhile  and  see  how  that  will  go ; 
It  is  hard  to  pay  my  fare  on  this  craft  and  go  afoot,  1  know. 
It's  not  much  fun  to  sit  on  tha<;  boat  and  watch  bridges  ahead, 
And  run  the  risk  of  having  your  brains  knocked  out  of  your  head. 
The  poorest  investment  in  my  life  that  I  ever  made 
It  was  when  my  fare  on  this  old  craft  I  paid, 
tt  was  on  a  pleasure  trip  when  I  set  sail  that  T  "was  bound; 
Dead  in  this  old  stinking  ditch  I  did  not  want  to  be  found. 
I  have  shipped  aboard,  I  won't  back  out, 
I  am  going  to  see  this  craft  through  to  the  end  of  the  route. 
It  woii't  do  for  me  to  get  very  far  ahead: 
I  may  lose  track — their  horses,  too,  are  liable  to  drop  dead. 
Horses  on  the  canal  never' get  tired  on  their  legs. 
They  are  in  such  a  hurry  they  must  eat,   while  they  work,   out  of 

bags. 
When  it  came  night,  in  this  craft  to  sleep  I  would  go  ; 
And  that  could  not  be  done,  the  musketoes  speared  me  se. 
The  bullfrogs  would  all  begin  their  bugles  to  blow ; 
It  seemed  to  me  they  all  tried  each  other  to  outdo, 
All  seemed  to  be  blowing  their  biggest  blast, 
And  all  trying  each  other  to  outlast. 
This  bugling  was  kept  up  during  the  nights; 
To  make  matters  worse,  -on  the  Low-path  there  would  be  fights. 
This  craft  they  tried  night  and  day  to  run. 
And  tiiat  was  out  of  the  question,  impossible  to  be  done. 
Every  few  days  this  old  ditch  out  this  slime  would  spew, 
Tnen  all  would  be  wrecked — boat,  passengers,  horses,  and  crew. 
This  was  so  this  v/holo  route,  along  the  whole  line 
There  was  a  racket  about  something  nearly  all  of  the  time. 
At  that  time  when  all  was  in  repair  and  new 
There  was  a  large  amount  of  produce  crowded  through. 
In  the  summer  to  this  old  ditch  it  would  center ; 
Not  a  pound  could  they  carry  through  the  cold  long  winter. 
In  the  summer  manv  times  they  would  wait  and  tarry, 
All  for  the  want  of  more  freight  to  carry. 
In  long  summer  days  could  be  seen  idle  crew 
In  the  fall  they  would  all  have  more  than  they  could  do. 


244  THE  horse's  rescue. 

The  caiise  of  all  this  and  all  other  fluctuations 

Is  the  want  of  system  and  better  regulations. 

In  the  fall,  when  the  most  work  was  to  be  done, 

This  old  ditch  was  crowded  full  and  overrun. 

Right  in  the  worst  time  you  could  have  this  work  to  do, 

It's  froze  up  solid ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  getting  through. 

"Wc  have  got  business,  resolute  men  of  this  make, 

This  ice  for  many  miles  they  will  pound  and  break. 

In  order  their  freight  to  market  to  get 

They  will  work  night  and  day   in  cold  and  wet, 

In  this  last  fluctuation  in  the  fall. 

"With  many  it's  make  or  break,  perhaps  lose  all. 

After  all  these  poor  men  and  horses  have  done, 

It's  full  of  loaded  boats  unable  to  run. 

"With  any  power  this  old  ditch  to  navigate. 

It  always  would  have  to  be  done  at  this  slow  rate. 

In  its  day  it  was  the  best  they  could  do, 

It  was  all  well  enough,  it  was  all  they  knew. 

Better  power  has  now  taken  its  place. 

To  lay  out  money  on  this  ditch  is  only  waste ; 

To  keep  it  up  in  repair,  I  mean. 

If  men  think  and  have  eyes  it  can  be  seen 

With  railroads  and  steam  it  never  can  compete ; 

Nearly  always  wrecked,  and  that,  too,  in  fleets. 

If  you  try  to  sail  it  is  only  half  the  year  round, 

And  then  in  fleets  you're  frozen  in  or  on  the  ground; 

Then  the  produce  you  are  trying  to  market  take. 

The  people  would  all  starve  before  the  port  you  could  make ; 

And  that  is  not  all ;  you  cannot  get  the  work  to  do. 

They  will  not  wait  for  this  old  ditch  to  crowd  it  through. 

To  conduct  the  produce  of  a  country  through  such  a  place 

Must  always  be  attended  with  shipwreck,  trouble,  and  waste. 

This  is  the  way  it  always  has  and  will  have  to  be  done. 

These  troubles  never  will  nor  never  can  be  overcome. 

There  is  nothing  in  favor  of  this  stinking  ditch  can  be  said ; 

A  man  might  use  a  little  argument  in  its  favor  if  he  was  out  of  his 

head. 
Tou  cannot  carry  perishable  produce  at  any  time  of  the  year ; 
It  will  not  be  long,  if  you  get  any  to  carry  it  will  be  queer. 
They  cannot  carry  hogs,  cattle,  neither  alive  nor  dead. 


THE   horse's   rescue.  245 

They  would  all  die,  s.ink,  and  carrion  before  the  port  was  made. 

This  ditch,  there  is  no  safety  shipping  anything  on  it ; 

It  IS  liable  to  get  sick  itself  any  time,  and  vomit. 

There  can  be  hundreds  and  thousands  of  things  said 

To  prove  this  old  stinking  ditch  called  the  canal  is  dead. 

"What  surprises  me  the  most  is  it  lived  as  long  as  it  did, 

Take  in  consideration  the  filth  and  corruption  it  has  been  fed. 

The  railroad  now  must  take  the  lead, 

On  corruption  and  carrion  it  does  not  feed. 

And  furthermore,  it's  got  more  sea  to  sail, 

And  with  it  carries  the  United  States  mail. 

All  over  this  republic  its  centers  are  made, 

All  systematized,  .and  has  got  the  balance  of  trade. 

The  producer  his  products  to  market  can  get  this  way; 

It  can  be  marketed  and  get  return  the  same  day. 

This  system  causes  produce  more  evenly  to  run, 

This  is  the  way  fluctuation  in  trade  away  must  be  done. 

With  railroads  aU  systematized  and  running  on  this  plan, 

It's  folly  any  longef  through  this  ditch  produce  to  try  to  cram, 

For  many  years  it  has  gradually  been  fallin*  to  decay, 

It's  became  a  nuisance  now,  and  should  be  out  of  the  way.     . 

It  to  rise  again  it  never  can,  that  is  plain  to  see. 

The  pi'oduce  of  the  country  from  it  seems  to  flee. 

I  cannot  see  where  any  longer  it's  of  any  kind  of  use, 

Only  make  slaves  to  pay  taxes,  and  stiff,  lame,  bUnd  horses  to  abuse. 

We  cannot  help  what  has  already  been  done, 

But  we  can  prevent  any  more  suffering  and  crime  from  this  source  to 

come, 
In  this  way — clear  away  this  rubbish,  it's  no  longer  of  any  use, 
It  will  do  away  with  lots  of  crime,  suffering,  and  abuse. 
Clear  away  old  rubbish  and  make  room  for  new, 
This  is  what  all  mankind  on  this  globe  have  always  had  to  do ; 
This  is  so  all  over  this  world,  sail  the  globe  around, 
Through  this  purifying  mill  we  all  have  to  be  ground. 
This  old  stinking  ditch  has  a  long  time  been  dead. 
And  yet  with  corruption,  filth,  and  carrion  of  all  kinds  it's  fed. 
With  disease  it  is  constantly  inoculating  along  the  whole  route. 
By  puking,  vomiting,  and  spewing  this  carrion  out. 
As  it  now  is  and  always  has  been,  empty  or  full, 
Do  all  you  can,  and  yet  it's  a  stinking  old  cestipool. 


246  THE    HORSE  S    RESCUE. 

It  will  get  Bick,  and  out  tliis  slime  and  corruption  will  run, 

Neirly  always,  when  this  takes  place,  great  damage  is  done 

Abandon  now  thi3  old  nuisance,  this  lias  got  to  be ; 

The  inhabitants  of  course  f  rum  it  cannot  very  well  flee. 

Ali  full  of  pools  of  dead,  inanimate  corruptions  it  lies, 

Tins  IS  the  cause  of  sickness,  disease;  in  this  it  has  its  rise. 

Tiiero  is  only  one  way  left  now  that  I  can  see. 

As  the  people  do  not  want  to  icave  their  farms  and  houses  and  flee, 

Is  to  bury  this  center  of  tilth  and  corruption  under  ground, 

With  other  dead  things  of  the  past,  so  deep  't  cannot  be  found. 

T.113  should  many  years  ago  been  done, 

Instead  of  squandering  the  people's  money  trying  to  make  a  dead  thing 

run. 
There  should  many  years  ago  appropriation  have  been  made, 
And  men  set  to  work  with  scraper,  plow,  picl^,  shovel,  and  spade. 
With  some  good  live  men  this  job  to  superintend, 
Tliis  would  not  be  a  great  task  .  it  would  soon  come  to  an  end. 
This  work  lor  our  country's  sake  should  now  begin  ; 
It  would  save  a  multitude  of  suffering,  crime  and  sin. 

Fine  palaces  to  build,  to  make  tyrannical  laws. 
To  punish  the  effect,  will  not  remove  the  cause. 
If  with  tramps  you  do  not  want  to  be  overrun. 
Something  besides  making  tyrannical  laws  must  be  done. 
There  never  has  been  a  law  that  the  people  could  not  break. 
And  they  always  have  and  always  will  for  liberty's  sake. 
That  tramp  law  smells  to  hell  of  tyranny  and  oppression : 
It's  a  disgrace  to  a  school  district,  town,  country,  state,  or  nation. 
Do  not  be  in  a  hurry  your  neighbor  and  brother  man  to  pursue , 
Look  around ;  there  may  be  some  one  m  pursuit  of  you. 
With  such  corrupt  legislation  as  we  now  have  got 
All  are  liable  to  stink  carrion  and  rot. 
A  worse  law  in  legislative  halls  you  could  not  make. 
It  caused  all  paupers  and  tramps  a  different  course  to  take — 
"  As  we  can  no  longer  for  help  witli  safety  to  the  people  appeal, 
It's  safer  now,  when  our  money  is  all  gone,  to  steal." 
That  damned  tramp  law  is  got  up  on  such  a  wise  plan 
It's  bound  to  take  our  liberty  away,  do  the  best  we  can. 
These  smart  and  good  and  wise  men  to  the  center  of  each  state  we 
have  sent 


THE   horse's  rescue.  247 

To  ruip  MS  legislating  for  themselves,  they  seem  hell  bent 

If  they  do  not  change  the  course  tliat  they  now  pursue 

They  w^ll  financially  wreck  th^  ship  of  state,  passengers  and  crew. 

They  are  fast  sapping  the  people's  liard-carucd  money  away 

To  build  costly  palaces  for  themselves  in  to  stay. 

Wo  do  not  any  longer  want  our  money  to  pay 

Tyrannical  men  our  liberty  to  legislate  away. 

For  many  years  it  has  been  gomg  on  from  bad  to  worse ; 

Many  laws  you  have  made  for  us  are  only  a  curse : 

And  the  course  you  are  steering  now  and  want  to  take 

Is  to  mako  yourselves  rich  and  of  us  paupers  make. 

Heavy  taxes  to  pay.  and  that  used  for  pomp  and  show, 

Will  soon  shipwreck  us  all,  that  we  well  know. 

We  will  all  have  to  drop  in  hne  if  this  course  you  sail, 

We  will  all  be  made  paupers,  of  this  there  will  be  no  fail. 

Spend  the  people's  money  m    domg  so,  of    them  make  paupers  and 

poor, 
Then  tax  them  to  build  reformatories,  prison  pens,  in  them  lo  secure. 
The  blackest  laws  of  these  or  of  any  other  times 
^Is  to  legislate,  make  laws,  to  make  paupers,  then    make    poverty  a 
crime. 
If  we  do  not  have  wiser,  honester.  better  men  at  the  helm  of  the  ship 

of  state 
To  hell  and  destruction  we  will  all  go  in  this  wake. 
Of  all  t))e  damned,  unmerciful  tyrants  a  man  can  ever  see 
Are  men  that  will  legislate  to  take  other's  liberty  away,  and  themselves 

go  free. 
And  this,  too,  for  the  awful  crime  of  not  havmg  a  cent. 
How  do  you  know,  if  these  men  ever  had  any  money,  how  it  was 

spent  ? 
Do  not  be  in  a  hurry  your  fellow-man's  liberty  away  to  take, 
He  may  have  something  new  that  cost  his  all  to  make. 
To  all  mankind,  rich  or  poor,  to  them  mercy  show. 
You  do  not  always  know  the  cause  that  made  them  so. 
Sit  down  with  them ;  have  a  little  chat ;  your  time  may  be  well  spent , 
He  may  have  a  new  discovery  that  cost  a  large  fortune  to  invent. 
There  are  many  ways  that  a  pauper  can  be  made. 
And  if  we  do  not  wiser  men  select  we  will  all  be  paupers,  I  am  afraid. 
By  legislation  legalized  robbers  all  uver  the  land  are  found, 
In  rings  and  monopolies  they  all  seem  to  be  bound. 


248  THE  horse's  rescue. 

In  our  legislative  lialls  this  eomiption  seem^  to  center, 

Eaise  their  own  salaries,  make  tyrannical  laws  for  others ,  in  this  way 

they  winter. 
In  this  course  yon  are  saihng  ;  look  ahead ;  there  are  breakers,  can't 

you  see? 
Of  all  the  damned  mean  robbers  is  a  man  that  will  sell  himself  foi  a 

fee, 
All  for  a  few  dollars  for  himself  to  try  to  make, 
He  will  place  the  hves  and  property  of  a  nation  at  stake. 
Poor,  blirid  fools,  do  you  ihink  you  know  what  you  are  a^xytit? 
The  first  thing  yon  know  you  will  be  all  t)irned  mside  out 
If  you  should  make  a  law  to  confine  me  even  to  a  stake. 
That  would  be  the  first  tlnwg  with  me  that  law  to  break. 
"With  kn'ipsack  on  my  back,  through  mud  and  snow,  witljout  a  cent. 
Night  and  day  I  would  travel      lo  break  that  law  I  wotild  be  hell 

bent 
Tliis  would  be  just  the  way  our  lil>erty  and  freedom  was  bought ; 
For  seven  long  years  the  soldiers  suffered,  died,  and  fought. 
Tyrants,  do  you  think  you  can  our  liberty  legislate  away? 
If  you  do,  try  it  •  you  will  find  some  of  the  same  mettle  ihey  had  m 

that  day. 
It  do3S  seem  to  me  the  first  principles  of  this  government  you  have 

lost: 
The  way  you  legislate,  act,  talk,  you  seem  to  thnik  yourselves  boss. 
We  do  not  intend  to  pay  you  much  longer  to.  rob  us,  we  will  have  you 

know : 
The  first  thing  you  know,  out  of  our  legislative  halls  you  will  go. 
Legalized  thieves  and  robbers  of  yourselves  you  have  made, 
And  at  that  damned  business  you  have  carried  on  heavy  trade, 
To  rob  us  and  build  up  powers  of  your  own : 
These  facts  to  us  have  a  long  time  been  known. 
Steal  our  hard-earned  money,  to  buy  yourselves  a  position, 
Then  legislate  to  make  ten  times  worse  our  condition ; 
Enact  laws  to  prevent  us  frovn  so  to  do, 
Then  sell  us  and  yourselves  to  this  damned  robbing  crew. 
This  is  what  you  have  been  doing  for  many  long  years; 
"Weep  for  your  crimes  now  with  scalding,  bitter  tears. 
You  have  been  now  in  the  balances  weighed, 
No  more  confidence  to  do  our  business  in  you  can  be  paid. 
Our  great  ship  of  state  you  have  wrecked  and  stranded, 


THE 


horse's  rescue.  249 


Quarreling  and  fighting  for  yourselvs  a  position  it  to  man. 

You  have  scuttled  this  ship  and  deserted  it,  too, 

This  is  just  the  way  all  robbers  and  pirates  do. 

There  is  no  use  of  denying  this,  it  is  all  true, 

And  worse,  you  have  done,  you  have  murdered  some  of  the  crew. 

Poor  Garfield  you  shot  down  without  any  cause; 

lie  has  been  these  many  years  battling  against  tyrannical  laws. 

My  God  1  what  do  you  think  is  going  to  become  of  this  nation? 

Rob  us  in  many  ways,  fight,  murder — all  for  a  ]50sition. 

All  the  legislation  for  many  years  for  yourselves  that  you  have  done, 

It  has  made  your  own  condition  worse,  no  good  to  us  by  it  can  come. 

All  over  our  great  republic  this  legalized  robbing  we  have  had; 

They  have  shipwrecked  the  whole  fleet,  and  now  they  are  play:ng 
grab. 

For  httle  or  no  service  big  bills  are  poured  m,  just  take  note — 

My  good  God!  no  wonder  this  fieet  no  longer  could  float. 

With  such  men  as  we  have  had  to  steer  this  fleet  of  our  nation. 

If  they  are  allowed  to  go  on  they  will  sail  us  to  hell  and  damnation. 

If  we  follow  them  any  longer  the  course  they  are  pursuing 

You  will  get  all  tlie  hell  you  want ;  it's  already  brewing. 

In  the  case  of  Guiteau,  look  at  the  useless  expense  of  his  trial ; 

He  committed  the  act;  that  was  seen:  it  will  admit  of  no  denial. 

Poor,  unhappy,  unfortunate  man  he  must  be. 

And  his  case  could  have  been  disposed  of  without  so  many  roibers  to 
fee. 

In  either  case,  insane  or  of  sound  mind, 

A  verdict  against  him  they  would  have  to  find. 

About  this  poor,  unfortunate  man  I  shall  have  no  more  to  say ; 

I  do  not  believe  in  hanging  or  kilhng  my  fellow-man  in  any  way. 

As  things  look  now.  something  will  soon  have  to  be  done ; 

111  this  corruption  the  fleet  of  the  United  States  cannot  run. 

The  only  way  now  that  I  can  see  to  pursue 

Is  10  clear  away  this  damned  rubbish  and  begin  new. 

For  condemned  they  are  by  the  overruling  power; 

If  they  are  allowed  to  go  on,  themselves  and  all  others  they  will  de- 
vour. 

They  seem  no  longer  able  to  keep  this  ship  afloat, 

They  might  possibly  run  an  old,  stinking  canal  boat. 

If  that  they  should  wreck  there  would  not  be  so  much  loss. 

Such  a  craft  as  that  they  might  possibly  get  to  boss. 


250  THE   horse's  rescue. 

Their  works  are  enough   to   condemn  them .    no   more  evidence  is 

needed ; 
Their  power  in  thousands  of  ways  they  have  exceeded. 
Our  servants  to  represent  us  we  have  sent  to  the  center  of  our  nation. 
They  have  been  duped — bought  to  make  unwise  legislation. 
Some  mea  have  such  an  awful  greed  for  the  glitter  of  gold, 
They  will  sacrifice  the  lives  and  property  of  a  nation  and  let  h  be  sold. 
And  that  is  the  power  now  with  it  this  nation  they  are  trying  to  run, 
To  rob  us  of  that  first  that  had  to  be  done; 
They  all  seem  trying  to  see  which  can  get  the  bit^gest  pile. 
In  doing  so  they  have  got  into  a  devil  of  a  rile 
The  flag  of  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-six  will  not  fade, 
The  stripes  for  tyrants  and  traitors,  thieves,  robbers,  they  were  made. 
Some  seem  trying  their  level  best  to  pull  it  down ; 
On  their  wise  and  honest,  faithful  heads  put  a  crown. 
This  government  on  the  opposite  principle  was  built  to  run 
To  put  crowns  on  our  hired  help  ;  I  think  it  will  be  hardly  done 
For  many  years,  now  we  have  lived  under  monarchical  reign. 
And  now  it  has  become  despotic.     Some  are  being  slain. 
Eobberies  and  riots  all  over  our  country  we  have  had, 
Now  it  looks  as  though  corruption  and  misrule  had  run  mad. 
There  is  no  use  trying  to  cover  it  up ;  it  stares  you  square  in  the  face. 
The  way  our  government  for  many  years  has  been  run  is  a  disgrace. 
It  would  be  tedious  for  a  man  to  write  where  this  corruption  all  had 

its  rise. 
If  he  knew,  and  had  the  time,  and  was  ever  so  wise. 
Just  to  open  your  eyes  I  will  give  j^ou  a  little  history  of  a  few. 
In  the  first  place,  we  are  sold  to  this  damned  robbing  crew ; 
We  are  taxed  and  robbed  iu  thousands  of  ways ; 
Without  representation  they  have  made  us  underlings  and  slaves. 
They  are  usurpers  of  power  which  to  them  does  not  belong : 
They  raised  their  own  salaries  themselves,  and  that  was  wrong. 
The  people  never  authorized  them  this  mean  business  to  do  ; 
It  was  all  planned  by  that  robbing,  sneaking,  treacherous  crew, 
That  was  done  in  the  beginning  of  that  great  General  Grant  reign. 
Right  in  the  very  time  when  all  around  was  to  be  slam. 
Our  country  was  in  danger ;  the  rebels  in  destruction  it  had  laid  ; 
To  render  us  a  little  assistance  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  him 

must  be  paid 
And  that  must  be  secured  a  term  eight  years  long ! 


THE   horse's   RESCDS-  251 

Fellow-citizens,  if  you  do  not  clear  yourselves  of  ihese  sappers  you  aro 
jrone. 

In  this  salary  grab,  of  course,  they  all  had  to  take  a  hand : 

Like  all  other  corruptions,  it  is  contagious ;  it  spread  all  over  the  land. 

To  double  like  ihis  is  easy  for  you,  wc  all  very  well  know, 

But  we  iiave  to  work  for  very  small  pay,  and  tliat  comes  slow. 

You  doubled  our  taxes  on  that  damned  robbmg  raid, 

And  now  you  put  on  pomp  and  show,  and  say  these  taxes  must  bo 
paid. 

And  if  you  do  not  pay  it  we  will  sell  you  out  of  house  and  home. 

And  as  paupers  and  tiiieves  over  the  country  you  shall  roam. 

It  seems  to  me  for  servants  you  are  putting  on  considerable  style  ; 

The  first  you  know,  out  of  our  legislative  halls  yovi  will  go  in  a  pile  , 

This  damned  tyrannical  3'oke  wc  do  not  much  longer  intend  to  wear  . 

"We  liave  stood  now  about,  all  we  can  possibly  bear. 

For  frauds,  robberies,  and  corruptions  all  other  1  nations  you  have  out- 
done, 

If  that  is  what  you  are  trying  to  do,  you  excel,    I  will  not  except 

one. 
Even  old  ancieni  Rome  you  outdo  in  your  blind  race  for  gold — 
For  that  their  happiness,  country,  honor,  and  lives  were  sold. 
As  for  you,  General  Grant,  something  more  must  be  done ; 
Such  services  for  your  country  and  great  laurels  you  have  won  , 
A  crown  should  be  put  on  your  head,  you  should  have  another  fee, 
Of  this  whole  band  of  robbers  you  should  be  king  bee. 
This  honor  you  certainly  have  won,  it  is  plain  to  be  seen. 
To  see  this  the  people  do  not  have  to  be  very  keen. 
It  is  widespread  and  well  known  over  tlie  land, 
That  robber  cluef  you  have  become  of  this  entire  robbing  band. 
Now,  sir,  I  do  not  see  as  we  can  honors  any  more  on  you  bestow; 
We  are  getting  very  poor ;  you  hav  squandered  our  money  and  robbed 

us  so. 
Raismg  the  salaries  all  over  our  whole  entire  nation. 
It  affected  all,  rich  and  poor,  all  in  the  same  relation. 
It  caused  men  who  had  the  poor  laborers  in  their  employ 
To  close  up.    "  We  cannot  run,  these  heavy  taxes  do  us  so  annoy." 
Some  would  try  a  little  longer  to  run  by  cutting  wages  down , 
This  has  caused  thousands,  what  are  now  called  tramps,  to  run  around 
To  see  if  they  could  get  some  work,  employment  find ; 
And  now  for  doing  so  they  have  made  laws  to  make  it  a  crime. 


252  THE  horse's  rescue. 

Mr.  Grant,  do  you  not  know  to  prison  for  begging  we  have  to  go, 

All  caused  by  you  and  your  damned  rotten,  robbing  crew  ? 

You  have  robbed  us  and  on  us  heavy  taxes  laid, 

And  criminals  and  slaves  and  paupers,  too,  of  us  you  have  made. 

When  3'ou  pilot  of  our  nation  eight  years  were  made, 

Four  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  3'ou  was  paid. 

And  extras  that  all  cost  us  money  were  thrown  in, 

And  now  you  are  around  begging  for  help  again. 

"What  you  did  with  all  that  money  of  course  we  do  not  know, 

Unless  you   spent  it  sailing  around,  setting  yourself  up  for  a  monkey 

show. 
If  now  a  beggar  and  pauper  3^011  have  got  to  be 
AftPr  all  we  have  done  to  help  you,  it  is  of  no  use  any  longer  that  I 

can  see. 
You  will  have  to  take  your  chances  as  all  beggars  and  paupers  do. 
Your  money  has  been  spent  without  doubt  for  pomp  and  show  ; 
Of  ours  we  have  been  robbed  by  heavy  taxes  to  pay  you 
And  your  damned,  corrupted,  thieving,  robbing  crew. 
We  do  not  intend  any  longer  by  you  robbers  and  tyrants  to  be  run; 
To  work  and  slave  night  and  day  for  small  pay  is  no  fun, 
And  give  it  to  you  to  squander  and  sow  broadcast. 
And  be  shipwrecked,  made  paupers,  and  in  prisons  at  last. 
Of  all  the  damned  robbers  that  I  ever  heard  of,  of  this  or  of  any  other 

time, 
You  are  the  biggest,  the  meanest  of  this  or  any  other,  for  crimes. 
You  have  got  so  3'ou  are  so  bold  \'ou  do  it  in  the  broad  da3'light, 
Then  try  to  cram  it  down  us,  and  make  us  believe  it  is  right. 
On  scientific  principles  b}-  honest  men  this  government  was  made  to 

run. 
And  now  by  legalized  robbers  and  thieves  corruption  it  is  overdone. 
No  matter  what  business  you  are  doing,  on  a  large  or  small  scale. 
When  you  are  overrun  with  sit-stills  and  sappers  it  must  fail. 
The  idea  of  taking  the  hard-earned  money  of  thousands  of  men, 
And  giving  it  to  a  lot  of  blockheads,  robbers,  and  thieves  to  spend  1 
These  pills  are  a  little  to  big  now ;  they  will  not  go  down ; 
You  have  made  them  too  big  of  late ;  it  has  caused  the  people  to  look 

around. 
You  have  rung  in  taxes  in  all  conceivable  wa3's  you  can, 
And  down  in  your  own  pockets  the  most  of  it  3"ou  cram. 


THE  horse's   rescue.  253 

You  have  made  a  great  mistake;  you  have  got  the  whole  business 

wrong  end  too ; 
It's  bad,  I  know,  but  it  is  so,  we  are  the  government  in  place  of  you. 
Of  course  we  understand  the  principles  of  this  government  and  plan. 
And  you  have  as  much  to  say  about  how  it  shall  be  run  as  any  other 

man. 
Until  you  are  chosen  by  the  people  them  to  represent, 
And  to  all  of  the  great  centers  of  our  great  nation  are  sent. 
Then  in  relation  to  this  government  you  are  changed  clear  around, 
Then  you  are  our  servants,  then  by  honor,  fidelity,  you  are  sworn  and 

bound, 
"^e  have  trusted  this  great  fleet  of  our  nation  in  your  care. 
You  have  betrayed  your  official  trust,  embezzled,  robbed,  plundered 

beware  I 
Some  men  seem  to  think  and  talk,  as  it  is  now  it  must  go  on, 
To  rescue  this  nation  from  your  grasp  it  cannot  be  done. 
"When  we  look  over  this  great  fleet  of  our  nation  and  take  a  view. 
Then  say  this  all  must  be  eternahy  run  by  this  damned  robber  crew, 
I  do  not  wish  any  man  on  this  round  globe  any  harm. 
But  the  way  we  are  sailing  now,  there  is  great  reason  for  alarm. 
If  we  do  not  tack  ship  and  steer  a  difEerent  course  soon 
To  hell  and  destruction  together  we  will  all  go  in  this  vortex  and  mael- 

Strom, 
"When  men  come  clamoring  around  the  great  center  of  our  nation 
Pleading  for  aid  to  keep  them  from  poverty  and  starvation. 
After  we  to  them  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  paid. 
To  do  this  it  has  by  law  paupers,  beggars,  criminals  of  us  made. 
Sappers  and  leeches,  do  you  always  think,  with  .vour  blind  greed. 
You  can  always  grind  us  down  to  the  earth  and  on  us  feed  ? 
The  principle  that  you  are  working  on  now,  if  you  could  ca^ry  it  out, 
Will  ruin  you  as  it  has  us,  of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
On  labor  the  support  of  this  nation  depends  and  has  its  rise, 
And  if  we  cannot  clear  ourselves  of  these  leeches  she  dies. 
What  a  damned  lazy,  burdensome  set  they  seem  to  be, 
They  are  no  earthly  use  to  tliis  government,  and  nowhere  tliat  I  can 

see. 
These  robbers  are  fast  sapping  out  tlie  heart's  blood  of  our  nation 
And  covering  our  land  with  prisons,  pDorhouses,  and  desolation. 
\Ye  have  for  many  long  years  these  robbers  and  spendthrifts  tried  to 

keep  up, 


25-^  THE  horse's  kescue. 

But  we  see  it's  of  no  kind  of  use,  they  only  grow  more  corrupt. 

Before  you  get  us  all  in  tlie  poorhouse  and  prison  pens, 

You  will  have  to  some  of  that  money  you  stole  from  us  spend. 

When  a  nation  gets  corrupted  and  rotten  a  the  core. 

The  people  have  no  confidence,  no  safety  any  more. 

If  you  steer  this  fleet  of  our  nation  and  keep  it  secure, 

You  must  keep  all  of  the  centers  of  this  great  republic  pure, 

Then  we  can  battle  with  outside  corruption  and  keep  it  at  bay: 

No  stream  can  be  kept  pure  when  the  fountain  is  corrupt ;  it  must  be 

cleared  away. 
You  have  inoculated  your  poisonous  venom  all  over  our  land, 
And  now  you  hang  around  the  center  to  be  fed  in  bands. 
I  see,  now,  business  seems  to  take  a  little  different  course, 
But  it  is  no  better;  ii's  going  on  from  bad  to  worse. 
It  has  the  appearance  as  thougli  they  were  going  to  disband  now, 
As  all  robbers  do  when  they  get  in  a  row. 
They  are  going  to  divide  up  ;  of  course  they  begin  with  the  biggest 

thief. 
That  is  General  Grant;  he  is  now  their  great  robber  chief. 
Thirteen  thousand  dollars,  five  hundred  a  year,  lie  wants  us  bound; 
That   won't   do;    that's   too   much;    there  won't   be   enough   to  go 

around. 
If  you  have  started  out  on  another  damned  robbing  raid, 
Do  not  be  such  a  hog ;  there  will  be  thousands  of  others  to  be  paid. 
Mr.  Grant,  we  will  have  you  and  your  robbing  band  to  know 
On  us  you  cannot  rivet  chains  that  gall  and  chafe  us  so. 
This  is  just  the  way  that  damned  salary  grab  was  played. 
And  ail  over  our  land  beggars,  paupers,  and  thieves  it  made. 
If  this  great  nation  you  are  going  to  ruin  and  the  spoils  divide, 
That  is  to  be  seen  yec,  you  can  tell  better  after  you  have  tried. 
Tt  looks  now  as  though  that  is  what  you  are  trying  to  do — 
You  and  your  damned  selfish,  thieving,  robbing  crew 
If  It  is  a  division  of  all  now  that  you  are  trying  to  make 
A  share  of  tliat  we  all  have,  and  that  we  intend  to  take, 
Tlie  principle  of  this  goverum.ent  is  equal  rights  to  all  mankind, 
.\nd  in  that,  too,  we  intend  to  have  a  share,  you  will  find. 
As  for  being  made  paupers  and  slaves  by  sucli  as  you. 
That  you  and  your  damned  robbing  crew  can  never  do. 
On  scientific  principles  by  this  government  you  was  educated  to  fight, 
And  you  have  turned  robber-chief,  doing  it  in  broad  daylight. 


THE  horse's  rescuk  255 

At  fighting  you  may  be  good — you  ought  to  be ;  it  is  all  you  know. 

For  the  course  you  are  taking  now  with  this  nation  will  show 

The  principles  of  this  government  you  do  not  understand ; 

If  you  do,  so  much  the  worse  for  you,  you  ought  to  be  damned 

If  fight  is  all  you  know,  and  that  is  what  you  want  to  do, 

We  will  give  you  all  you  want  before  we  get  through. 

These  sappers  and  leeches  and  robbers  at  the  heart  of  our  nation 

Are  driving  the  supporters  of  it  to  despair  and  desperation. 

Nearly  all  of  the  blood  on  this  green  earth  that  has  been  shed, 

Has  been  caused  by  tyrannical  laws  that  tyrants  have  made. 

Poor,  blind,  ignorant,  selfish  men  you  must  be  to  think 

You  can  grind  us  down  with  taxes,  and  yourselves  not  sink. 

In  order  with  success  to  run  this  flleet  of  our  nation 

The  laborers  and  producers  must  be  in  a  prosperous  condition. 

When  hoggish,  selfish,  bad-principled  men  get  tlie  balance  of  power 

Through  ignorance,   tyrannical  laws   they  will  make,  themselves  to 

devour. 
For  all  crimes  committed  on  this  earth  retribution  must  be  made^ 
Either  before  you  leave  this  earth  or  after  you  are  dead. 
This  is  the  decree  and  law  the  creator  has  made  for  all ; 
On  your  own  merits  you  must  sink,  rise,  or  fall. 
No  other  provision  the  creator  for  us  has  ever  made; 
All  sins  committed  by  ourselves,  by  us  they  must  be  paid. 
All  nations,  when  they  get  corrupted  by  their  blind  greed  for  gold, 
For  this,  sooner  or  later,  to  destruction  tliey  are  sold. 
Now  this  is  just  what  all  of  this  trouble  in  our  nation  is  about; 
We  will  go  the  way  all  others  have  gone  if  it  is  not  purged  out. 
Like  causes  produce  like  effects;   search  the  world  around, 
No  argument  can  be  used ;  to  destruction  they  seem  bound. 
All  can  see  plain  enough  after  it  is  too  late; 
It  will  be  no  time  then  to  grieve  and  mourn  your  sad  fate. 
This  will  be  the  sad  result,  and  that,  too,  very  soon; 
This  is  the  way  of  all  nations — when  corrupted,  this  is  their  doom. 
All  men  seem  to  have  their  sphere  and  bounds  to  fill. 
And  all  should  in  harmony  live  and  show  each  other  good  will. 
But  when  selfish  men  make   tyrannical    laws,  on  us  encroachments 

make,  * 

It  causes  all  mankind  then  a  different  course  to  take. 
To  live  in  shanties   and   hovels,  and  at   last   be  crowded   in  prison 

pens, 


256  THE  horse's  rescue. 

It  causes  men  to  rise  up  and  try  themselves  to  defend. 

Whether  they  can  or  cannot,  they  always  have  and  always  will  try; 

It  seems  to  be  their  nature;  for  liberty  they  will  tight  until  they  die 

Now  these  encroachments  are  talked  and  felt  all  over  our  nation, 

And  if  there  is  not  a  change  soon,  it  will  be  laid  waste  m  desolation 

Capital  to  do  business  we  must  have,  that  we  all  well  know; 

But  it  is  a  curse  to  this  nation  to  spend  it  in  pomp  and  show. 

From  all  business  of  this  kind  no  returns  can  be  had. 

It  is  only  squandering    the  producers'  money;   no  dividends  can  be 

made. 
I  suppose  some  think  they  are  doing  big  things  at  the  center  of  our 

nation, 
Squandering  our  money  building  palaces  all  over  God's  creation. 
Of  course  in  this  robbing  raid  they  must  all  have  a  share. 
Producers  and  laborers,  you  are  the  treasury  ;   take  care,  take  care ! 
Some  are  trying  to  save  all  they  possibly  can  in  this  way, 
By  converting  all  they  have  in  bonds,  then  they  will  have  no  taxes  to 

pay. 
This  throws  the  whole  burden  on  those  that  are  the  least  able  it  to 

bear. 
Remember  the  principle  of  this  country  is  equal  rights;  beware,  be- 
ware! 
No  laws  that  you  have  made  do  we  recognize  when  your  powers  you 

exceed. 
No  privileged  ones  in  this  government  on  us  much  longer  can  feed. 
Laws  that  you  have  made,  no  matter  when  or  by  whom  they  were 

made, 
The  most  of  the  burden  on  the  laborer  and  producer  is  laid. 
My  God  I  the  most  pitiful  sight  that  a  man  ever  can  behold 
Is  to  look  over  this  nation  and  see  men  robbing  themselves  for  gold. 
In  the  course  you  are  pursuing  now,  you  will  soon  have  to  know 
You  have  been  robbing  yourselves ;  you  had  better  go  slow. 
"When  the  time  comes,  with  your  plunder,  where  you  can  steer ; 
That  is  a  mystery  to  me  that  I  cannot  see  clear. 

When  this  robbing  that  you  have  begun  all  over  our  land  breaks  out, 
Then  you  will  see  the  cause  when  it  is  too  late,  without  doubt. 
It  doosnot  seem  as  though  people  would  be  such  selfish  bhnd,  fools, 
By  legislation  to  rob  themselves  and  sail  riglit  mto  a  whirlpool. 
In  order  for  this  fleet  of  our  nation  to  suc<^essfully  be  run, 
Capital  and  labor  must  be  balanced  as  u«ar  as  it  can  be  done. 


THE    HORSE  S    RESCUE.  257 

As  it  is  now  them  that  is  the  best  able  have  no  taxes  to  pay  ; 
In  this  way  the  whole  fleet  of  our  nation  is  balanced  the  wrong  way. 
With  interest  on  bonds,  and  idle  capital  in  vaults  doubling  on  us, 
AVith  this,  and  many  other  robberies,  will  cause  the  boilers  to  burst. 
This  great  fleet  of  our  nation  out  of  balance  cannot  sail ; 
Do  all  you  can  to  prevent,  unless  you  cliange,  it  will  fail. 
If  out  of  balance  you  sail,  it  is  easy  enough  to  see 
In  favor  of  the  laborer  and  producer  it  should  be. 
As  it  is  now,  you  are  killing  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg, 
Fining  the  prisons,  poorhouses,  insane  asylums,  causing  them- to  beg, 
Now  you  seem  to  be  bewildered  in  a  fog,  and  failed ; 
You  act  as  though  your  compass  you  had  lost,  rudder  and  sail. 
You  have  been  drifting  out  of  your  course  for  a  long  time ; 
You  cannot  sail  this  great  fleet  in  corruption  and  crime. 
Equal  rights  to  all  mankind  in  this  government  it  was  to  be, 
And  in  safety  no  other  way  it  can  be  run,  you  will  soon  see. 
You  will  have  all  the  business  you  want,  the  best  you  can  do, 
If  all  are  honest — pilot,  mate,  passengers,  and  crew. 
"When  robbers  and  traitors  to  the  helm  of  the  fleet  of  our  nation  turn, 
There  will  be  trouble  enough ;  these  facts  you  will  soon  learn. 
.  Unless  the  people  all  change  their  course,  and  right-about  face. 
We  will  all  sink  together  with  this  fleet  in  everlasting  disgrace. 
For  by  trickery,  bribery,  and  rascality  the  business  is  nearly  all  done; 
Some  damned  scoundrels  started  it,  and  in  this  channel  they  run, 
In  order  to  keep  pace  in  this  blind  race  and  keep  up. 
To  hell  and  destruction  we  are  sailing  and  growing  more  corrupt, 
If  in  filth,  carrion,  crime,  and  corruption  you  try  this  flee*  to  wallow 

through, 
And  all  out  of  balance  the  wrong  way,  that  you  can  never  do. 
If  you  want  again  to  -get  this  fleet  of  our  nation  afloat  k« 

You  must  elect  honest  men  when  you  come  to  vote. 
That  will  balance  it  up  on  the  original  plan. 
And  that  is  equal  rights  to  all,  every  mau. 
Clear  away  the  leeches  and  robbers  so  many  to  fee, 
Then  you  can  get  this  great  fleet  of  our  nation  at  sea. 
How  can  anyone  do  anything  with  so  many  prowling  around  ? 
It  would  be  a  blessing  to  this  nation  if  some  would  get  drowned. 
The  first  thing  to  be  done  is  our  expenses  to  curtail; 
There  is  no  use  trying  to  run  so,  if  you  do  you  will  fail. 
Knock  the  wages  down  more  than  one-half  on  the  whole  crew. 


258  THE   horse's  rescue. 

If  you  ever  sail  this  fleet  this  is  what  yon  will  have  to  do, 

And  throw  out  no  more  such  attractive  bait  as  that  salary  grab, 

That  caused  the  people  with  corruption  almost  to  go  mad 

Next  to  be  done  will  be  to  tax  all  property  on  the  equalization  plan ; 

Make  all  bear  their  part  of  the  burden,  both  woman  and  man. 

Next,  there  should  be  only  a  small  appropriation  made, 

To  set  idle  men  to  work  with  pick,  shovel,  and  spade. 

To  bury  this  old  canal ;  it  stinks ;  it  has  a  long  time  been  dead. 

There  is  no  use  of  its  having  any  more  carrion  to  it  fed. 


Now  I  will  bid  you  all  a  hearty  adieu, 
The  whole  entire,  dishonest,  robbing  crew ; 
But  I  intend  to  keep  watch  to  see  the  progression 
You  make  sailing  this  great  fleet  of  our  nation. 

I  have  sailed  myself  out  of  my  course; 
I  must  tack  ship  and  go  to  Avork  on  the  horse, 
To  follow  you  any  longer,  that  I  cannot  safely  do ; 
It  would  shipwreck  and  ruin  me,  as  it  has  you. 

When  a  nation  gets  so  selfish,  so  ignorant,  and  blind. 
As  to  rob  themselves,  there  is  no  safety  I  find. 
When  on  themselves  they  make  robbing  raids, 
There  is  danger  ahead,  I  am  afraiJ. 

There  does  not  seem  to  b^  any  way  to  make  them  see — 
To  be  robbers  of  themselves  they  are  bound  to  be, 
In  rings  and  monopolies  all  oxer  our  land. 
To  ruin  themselves  they  are  bound,  if  the}^  can. 

When  on  you  tliis  great  destruction  and  calamity  comes, 
Do  tell,  what  will  with  your  plunders  be  done ; 
When  all  are  trying  each  other  to  devour, 
Who  will  stay  the  hand,  then,  of  this  unruh'  power? 

When  at  the  center  of  our  great  nation  it  is  begun. 
What  then,  do  you  think,  to  save  this  great  fleet  can  be  done  ? 
When  the  people  have  no  standard  or  center  to  rally  round, 
When  the  old  flag  of  seventy-six  you  have  pulled  down  ? 

When  thieves  and  robbers  are  at  work  at  our  nation's  heart, 
Lookout,  take  care,  beware  ;  that  is  the  vital  part. 


THE   horse's  rescue.  259 

You  will  have  to  stop  that  soon,  without  doubt, 
Or  you  will  cause  this  nation's  blood  to  all  run  out. 

Eor  the  lave  of  money,  selfish,  avaricious  greed 
Has  caused  other  nations  to  suffer  and  to  bleed  ; 
And  some  themselves  to  death  they  have  bled, 
And  have  become  extinct,  and  now  are  dead. 

Unless  you  are  more  honest  and  liberal,  yon  will  see, 
The  same  as  it  has  been  with  others,  with  you  it  will  be. 
If  you  are  not  more  harmoniously  united,  every  man, 
For  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand. 

You  will  bring  destruction  down  on  your  own  heads ; 
In  rapine,  slaughter,  and  blood  you  will  make  your  beds. 
It  is  liable  at  any  time  now  to  break  out. 
And  when  it  comes  it  will  be  like  an  avalanche,  no  doubt. 

No  one  can  foretell  in  advance  what  will  take  place, 

It  is  easy  to  see ;  it  now  stares  you  in  the  face. 

I  mean  just  when  the  great  crisis  will  come, 

That  will  be  soon  if  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  its  being  done. 

This  avalanche,  if  they  would,  could  be  turned  a  different  course. 
I  must  quit  now  and  go  to  work  on  the  horse. 
Poor  old  gray,  a  customer  for  you  I  have  found ; 
He  cannot  tell  that  you  were  ever  lame  or  unsound. 

All  I  want  for  you  is  just  what  I  paid  last  fall ; 
The  feed  and  work  that  I  have  done,  j^ou  are  welcome  to  it  all ; 
And  I  will  take  you  to  the  shop  and  shoe  you  all  around  new ; 
This  will  probably  be  the  last  for  you  I  shall  have  a  chance  to  do. 

For  all  this  long  winter's  work  on  you  I  am  well  paid ; 
The  lesson  I  have  learned  is  enough,  now  I  am  not  afraid. 
All  stiff  horses  on  this  principle  can  be  cured,  I  find  ; 
The  older  they  are,  and  of  long  standing  the  longer  the  time. 

Now  I  have  got  you  shod  all  around,  nice  and  new, 

I  will  bid  3'ou  good-bye ;  it  may  not  be  a  final  adieu. 

You  look  fine  now ;  good-bye,  good-bye,  poor  old  mare, 

I  may  come  around  again  to  see  how  you  are.  -  •  ■ 


260  THE  horse's  bescuk 

After  working  almost  night  and  day  through  tliis 
long,  cold  winter  to  demonstrate  and  satisfy  myself 
what  could  be  done  for  old  stiff  horses  of  long  stand- 
ing, I  found  myself  more  than  paid.  I  found  in  this 
search  that  this  science,  if  followed  up,  would  perform 
wonderful  cures  on  all.  This  was  to  put  the  cap-sheaf 
on  all  of  my  experimenting.  It  went  beyond  all  my 
expectation,  I  was  surprised  myself.  "  Now," 
thought  I,  "I  can  tackle  almost  everything  in  the  line 
of  stiff  and  lame  horses,  and  this  I  am  determined  to 
do.  This  science  I  am  going  to  introduce."  This  is 
the  way  I  reasoned  with  myself :  I  have  got  the  big- 
gest thing  on  this  globe — and  I  have  not  changed  my 
mind  yet  on  that,  neither  can  I.  After  all  the 
searches  of  others,  for  no  one  knows  how  long,  this 
complicated  and  difficult  mystery  they  have  not  solved 
and  cannot.  This  job  on  this  old  mare  has  com- 
pletely cleared  the  fog  av/ay.  No  matter  what  the 
people  say  to  the  contrary,  I  am  going  to  start  out  and 
try  to  introduce  it  in  some  new  places.  I  know  what 
I  will  have  to  contend  with.  It  will  be  the  same  old 
music  that  I  have  heard  so  long.  The  first  thing  to 
be  done  will  be  to  close  up  my  shop  and  business  in 
this  place  ;  the  next  will  be  to  have  a  fat  pocketbook, 
for  nothing  can  be  done  without  that  toward  introduc- 
ing this  great  science  ;  that  I  have  demonstrated  to  my 
satisfaction. 

Header,  you  may  wonder  where  I  got  all  my  money 
at  that  time  aside  from  what  I  earned  in  my  shop.  It 
was  instalments  and  interest  from  a  farm  that  I  sold 
that  I  was  using  to  rescue  the  suffering  horse.  After 
receiving  my  annual  instalment,  the  next  thing  to  be 


THB   horse's  rescue.  261 

done  was  to  get  some  bills  printed  to  advertise  tliis 
great  discovery  and  science  and  announce  my  corning. 
This  bill  was  drawn  up  in  this  way : 

"  PROF.  GERARD  DOAN, 
TnE  CHAMPION  HORSE-SHOER  OF  AMERICA, 

Having  made  horse-sboeing  a  business  for    many  years,   and  study- 
ing the  natural  borse  and  all  of  tbe  cbanges  from  tbe 
natural  to  tbe  unnatural,  its  effect   in  all 
of  tbe  different  cbanges,  bas 
'  made  tbe  great 

dis- 
covery bow  to  cure 
foundered  borses  of  long  stand- 
ing— water,  cbest,  and  grain  founder;  perisbed 
sboulders  ;  remove  all  air-puffs,  corns,  coffin-joint  lameness, 
bo'jlers,  sbufllers,  single-footers,  and  borses  tbat  bop  bebind  in  speed- 
ing.    All  these  cures  I  will  perform  without  medicine. 
I  will  deliver  lectures  free.       All  owners 
of  borses  and  mules  will  do 

well  to  attend. 
I  will  be  at  your  place,  etc. 

I  did  not  advertise  on  this  bill  all  I  could  do  with, 
out  medicine.  I  well  knew  this  was  more  than  thev 
could  stand.  I  put  on  "  professor  "  because  I  thought 
it  would  help  me.  They  like  the  sound  of  these  big- 
sounding  titles.  I  have  seen  as  big  fools  with  "  pro- 
fessor" attached  to  their  names  as  I  ever  did  without; 
and  my  attaching  it  to  my  name  did  not  help  me  any, 
as  experience  proved.     After  this  bill  was  drawn  up, 


262  THE  HORSE^S    RESCUE. 

I  sailed  for  the  city  of  Elmira  to  get  it  printed.  The 
printer  read  it  over.  I  said  to  him  :  '' It's  a  big  thing; 
don't  YOU  think  it  is?" 

*'  Yes ;  but  I  do  not  believe  it." 

"You  will  print  the  bills,  I  suppose,  if  I  will  pay 
you?" 

''Yes." 

After  arranging  this  bill  with  a  cut  of  two  fast- 
sailing  trotters  at  the  head,  I  closed  a  bargain  with 
him  to  strike  me  off  sixteen  dollars'  worth.  After 
this  job  was  completed  I  sailed  forHorseheads.  After 
my  arrival  I  stood  with  my  bundle  of  bills  under  mv 
arm  on  the  walk.     A  man  drove  up.     He  says  to  me : 

"  Professor,  one  of  my  horses  is  lame ;  the  other  is 
getting  wind-puffs  on  him." 

While  I  was  talking  with  him  there  was  a  stranger 
to  me  standing  by.  He  heard  our  conversation.  Af- 
ter our  talk  was  ended  I  turned  to  walk  away.  He 
said  to  me,  "  Are  you  a  veterinarian  ?" 

"  No  ;  I  am  not.  I  work  on  horses'  feet.  I  have 
done  tbat  for  many  years,  and  I  have  made  some 
quite  big  discoveries  recently.  I  have  been  getting 
some  bills  printed  preparatory  to  traveling  and  lectur- 
ing, and  getting  up  schools  to  try  and  see  if  I  can  in- 
troduce it." 

"Come  to  our  place  first.  I  am  a  veterinarian.  I 
will  help  you.  I  would  like  to  travel  with  you.  I 
can  cure  spavins,  ringbones,  pole-evil,  and  thistloes. 
I  can  work  on  the  outside  and  pick  up  some  money 
that  way.  I  will  do  all  of  the  posting  bills  and  secure 
the  halls  to  lecture  in.  If  you  will  come  to  our  place 
I  will  take  some  of  your  bills  now  and  put  them   up 


THE    HORPES'    RESCUE.  263 

if  you  will  just  fix  the  day  and  evening  on  them  that 
you  will  be  there." 

"  Where  do  you  live?" 

"  It  is  in  the  state  of  Pennsylvania." 

"Plow  far  is  it?" 

"Sixty  miles." 

"Is  it  a  large  place?" 

"Oh,  yes;  it  is  a  large,  thriving  business  town,  and 
lots  of  stiff  and  lame  horses." 

"  When  I  start  this  science  in  a  place  I  have  to  stay 
some  time  to  introduce  it.  I  want  a  big  field  to  work 
There  is  no  use  stopping  in  a  small  place.  This  is  a 
rather  hard  science  to  introduce.  It  is  in  advance  of 
the  age  to  cure  horses  without  medicine.  I  will  come 
to  your  place  first.  I  will  fix  the  time  on  some  bills. 
You  put  these  bills  up  in  all  of  the  public  places,  and 
secure  a  hall  for  the  evening.  I  will  be  on  the 
ground." 

After  arranging  matters  at  home  by  dividing  m}^ 
money  with  my  wife,  closing  my  house,  she  and  my 
boy  Frank  left  this  town  to  visit  their  relatives  and 
friends  in  Auburn  city  and  other  places,  I  was  pre- 
pared for  a  long  campaign  battling  for  the  horse. 
With  my  shoeing  tools  and  bills  in  a  heavy  satchel, 
when  the  day  came  I  set  sail.  I  arrived  in  this  town 
about  noon.  I  must  say  I  was  never  more  disap- 
pointed in  my  life.  I  do  not  remember  the  place's 
name,  neither  do  I  remember  this  veterinarian's  name. 
It  was  a  little  huddle  down  in  a  sunken  place  sur- 
rounded with  high  mountain  peaks.  There  was  no 
way  I  could  see  out  without  looking  nearly  straight 
up.     One   old   run-down,    dilapidated  hotel.     About 


264  THE  horse's  rescue. 

tlie  first  object  I  saw  in  the  form  of  s^  human  being 
was  one  man  who  had  another  poor,  drunken  man  by  the 
nape  of  the  neck,  kicking  him  ahnost  to  death.  There 
were  two  or  three  old  stores.  The  first  thing  I  did 
was  to  look  and  see  where  all  of  those  bills  were  put 
up.  I  looked  .this  town  all  over,  and  no  bills  could  I 
find.  I  walked-in  the  hotel,  and  inquired  for  and  about 
my  veterinary  friend.  They  told  me  where  he  lived. 
I,  with  satchel  in  band,  walked  up  to  his  house.  He 
sat  on  the  verandah,  tipped  back  in  a  chair,  reading  the 
news  of  the  day.  He  seemed  surprised  to  see  me.  I 
accosted  him  in  this  way:  ''The  bills  are  not  up,  I 
see.     How  is  this  ?" 

"  Well,  I  showed  them  some.  They  did  not  be- 
lieve anything  in  it.  They  said  it  was  a  damn  hum- 
bug." 

"  Then  you  hav  not  secured  any  hall  to  lecture  in  ?'' 

*'No." 

"Did  you  think  they  Vvould  believe  it  could  be 
done?  This  is  just  what  our  business  is  to  teach 
them  these  principles,  truths,  and  facts." 

I  soon  saw  this  man  was  of  no  use  to  me.  He  was 
entirely  too  weak  in  the  knees  and  garret.  Golly ! 
this  ia  a  hard  battle  to  fight  alone.  I  am  not  going  to 
leaye  this  town  without  giving  them  a  brush.  I  am 
going  to  lecture  in  this  town  on  the  horse  if  there  is 
not  one  man  to  listen.  I  am  going  to  look  this  town 
over.     I  will  get  up  some  kind  of  a  racket. 

I  walked  up  to  what  they  called  a  livery  stable. ' 
There  sat  the  proprietor  on  some  rubbish.     Pieces  of 
old  wagons,  harness,  and  old  boards  were  all  over  the 
floor.     He  sat  with  both  elbows  on  hi* knees,  his  chin 


THE  horse's  rescue.  265 

resting  on  both  hands  to  hold  his  head  up.  I  ap- 
proached him,  as  cautiously  as  I  knew  how  to,  on  the 
horse.  I  saw  the  condition  of  his  row  of  fine  horses 
at  a  glance  when  I  first  stepped  in.  It  would  not  take 
a  very  close  observer  to  see  they  were  in  a  very  bad 
condition.  The  whole  row  stood  on  piles  of  manure 
that  elevated  them  behind  at  least  a  foot  too  high. 
Some  were  ankle-cocked  ;  some  off  their  base  badly ; 
in  fact,  they  were  a  hard-looking  sight.  In  a  round- 
about way  I  commenced  to  talk  horse.  I  carefully 
closed  upon  him  at  last.  I  told  him  they  could  be 
cured  without  medicine.  Then  he  exploded.  He 
railed  at  me : 

*'  Bo  you  think  we  are  all  damned  fools  here?  Do 
you  think  you  can  humbug  us?" 

There  was  no  use  in  talking  with  him  any  more. 
There  would  be  danger  of  getting  some  of  that  rub- 
bish over  my  head.  Next  I  walked  into  a  blacksmith 
shop.  I  glanced  around.  I  saw  things  were  all  kept 
in  good  order.  The  work  all  looked  mechanic-like. 
There  was  some  good  work  finished  and  partly  fin- 
ished. Onlv  one  man  was  in  this  shop.  I  asked  him 
if  he  was  the  proprietor.  He  said  he  was,  and  worked 
alone.  I  saw  he  had  quite  a  head  on  him,  though  his 
body  was  very  inferior.  He  was  deformed,  small, 
hump-shouldered.  He  did  not  look  as  though  he  was 
able  to  shoe  horses.  But  he  did,  I  saw,  and  his  work 
looked  well.  I  soon  saw  I  could,  talk  with  him  on 
the  principles  of  "forking  on  the  feet  of  horses.  I 
had  my  pasteboard  foot  to  show  him  the  principles  to 
work  on.  He  soon  saw  the  whole  business.  I  spent 
about  an  hour  with  him.     He  was  the  most  i 


266  THE  horse's  rescue, 

looking  man   I  saw  in  that   town,  and  the  best  me- 
chanic.    I  visited  two  other   shops  and  bad  a  cbat 
with   the  owners.     They    stared  at  me  when   I  lold 
them  I  could  perform  these  cures  without  medicine  on 
principles  of  science.     They  looked  at  me  as  though 
they  thought  I  was  insane.     Night  came.     A  few  col- 
lected in  this  little  huddle.     To  leave  this  town  with- 
out  delivering  a  lecture  on  the  horse  I  was  deter- 
mined not  to  do.     I  saw  some  boxes  on  the  steps  of  a 
store.     I  asked  permission  to  take  one.     I  rolled  it 
across  the  walk  in  the  street.     I  quietly  got  myself  on 
this  base  to  attract  their  attention.     I  commenced  by 
a  few  introductory  preliminaries,  stating  my  business 
in  their  place  ;  my  disappointment  on  account  of  the 
bills  not  being  posted   and  no  hall  secured,  and  the 
field    was    too   small    to  try  to    introduce    this  great 
science ;  but  if  you  wil»l  listesi  I  will  give  you  a  short 
lecture  here.     This  bugling  attracted  a  few.     I  sailed' 
out  at  the  same  time.     I  kept  watoh  of  the  crowd.    It 
was  not  a  large  one,  not  more  than  five  or  six   at  one 
time.     They  would  come  and  go.     This  changing  was 
constantly  going  on  ;  it  was  rather  discouraging  to  try 
to  teach  science  in   this  way.     I  saw   they  stared  at 
me*  a  little  while,  then  moved  away.     Others  would 
do  the  same.     There  was  one  fine-looking  man  I  saw 
staid  at  his  post  from  the  first.     I  saw  he  was  inter- 
ested, and  that  induced  me  to  go  on.     If  it  had  not 
been  for  him  I  might  just  as  well  have  been  in   the 
woods  on  a  stump  talking  to  trees.*    After  this  lecture 
was  over  I  rolled  the  box  back,  and  walked  bnck   to 
the  hotel.     I  remained  in  this  place  part  of  the  next 
day.     While  sitting  in  the  hotel  this  listener  to  my 


THE   horsk's   rescue.  267 

lecture  came  in,  seated  himself,,  and  commenced  to 
draw  me  out  in  conversation  on  the  horse.  Said  he: 
"You  are  all  right,  stranger,  but  I  do  not  believe  you 
can  introduce  it.  What  will  you  take  to  teach  me 
what  you  know  about  the  horse?     I  am  in  earnest." 

"  I  do  not  know  as  I  could  teach  you  all  I  know  on 
the  horse,"  I  replied.  "It  has  been  a  life-long  study 
with  me.  If  I  was  going  to  remain  in  this  place  I 
could  and  would  teach  you  some  very  valuable  les- 
sons." 

The  remark  I  made  to  this  man  when  he  told  me 
he  did  not  think  I  could  introduce  this  science  was, 
*'I  will  or  burst;  that  is,  I  will  sink  ever}^  dollar  I 
have  got,  then  earn  more,  and  go  at  it  again." 

After  this  noble-minded  and  gentlemanly  man 
passed  out.  I  inquired  who  he  was.  They  said  he 
was  the  physician  of  their  place.  At  that  time  I  com- 
menced to  reason  \vith  m^^«=elf  in  this  way:  It  took 
me  a  lono;  time  to  learn  how  to  introduce  it.  I  can 
see  now  that  I  sailed  out  before  I  was  full  rigged.  I 
have  got  no  bocks  with  these  principles  and  rules  laid 
down.  They  cannot  remember  all  that  I  say  to  them 
if  they-  listen.  I  must  write  a  book.  Here  is  the 
sticker — for  me  to  convey  all  this  in  a  book,  and  if  I 
do.  that  will  not  sell  as  this  matter  now  stands.  They 
would  call  that  a  damned  humbug,  as  they  do  me. 
That  will  not  do  yet.  It  must  be  introduced  first  by 
<]oing  the  work  in  order  to  get  good,  reliable,  substan- 
tial, noted  scientific  rnen  for  reference  to  put  in  the 
book.  I  am  going  to  leave  this  town  and  sail  to  Au- 
burn city.  I  have  a  brother  there,  a  horse-shoer,  and 
another    twenty    miles  from  there.      They  are    both 


268  THE  horse's  rescue. 

good  workers  on  tbe  horse's  feet.  I  am  going  to  en- 
list them  in  this  horse  fight.  That  will  be  easy 
enough  to  do,  for  thej  have  been  and  are  now  trj'ing 
to  solve  this  mystery.  I  sailed  for  Auburn.  On  my 
way  I  stopped  at  my  brother  Oliver's  place  of  busi- 
ness. He  was  located  in  a  small  inland  town  at  that 
time  surrounded  with  a  beautiful  country  and  well-to- 
do  farmers.  I  walked  into  his  shop.  He  was  seated 
on  a  saw-horse.  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  looked, 
tired  and  sick,  thin  in  flesh,  cheeks  sunken,  eyes  the 
same.     "What's  the  matter,  Ob?"  said  I. 

'•  Well,  the  fact  is,"  said  he,  "I  am  about  used  up. 
I  am  nearly  ridden  to  death  with  so  many  crippled 
and  stiff  liorses.  They  come  pouring  in  on  me  from 
mnnj^  miles  away.  They  keep  me  nearly  all  of  my 
time  holding  them  up.  I  can  fix  them  up,  and  do, 
some  that  are  very  bad,  but  it  is  killing  business  for 
me,  and  small  pay.     I  can  hardly  live  out  of  it." 

I  said  :  "  I  have  got  something  I  want  to  show  j^'on. 
I  have  come  on  purpose  to  do  this.  It  solves  the 
whole  mystery  we  have  so  long  been  trying  to  find 
out.  I  can  tell  you  how  you  can  cure  all  of  these 
stiff  horses." 

I  took  out  of  my  satchel  my  pasteboard  hoof,  and 
explained  the  principles  it  was  done  on.  He  saw 
it  all  at  a  glance. 

''That  will  do  it,  I  know,"  said  he. 

In  a  few  words  it  was  all  made  clear  to  him.  He 
could  do  it  as  well  as  I  could.  His  long  experience 
and  the  progression  he  had  made  enabled  him  to  grasp 
this  new  discovery  instantly.  It  was  what  he  had 
been  many  years  reaching  after. 


THE    horse's    rescue.  2i>9 

"Oliver,"  said  I,  "I  am  going  to  Auburn  to  see 
Joseph.  I  want  you  and  him  to  help  me  introduce 
this  science." 

"You  will  meet  with  a  power  of  opposition  in 
many  ways,"  said  he. 

"That  I  care  nothing  about,"  I  replied.  "T  liave 
been  pulverized  through  that  mill.  I  want  to  beat 
them  if  I  can.  I  am  ahead  here.  If  you  will  take 
hold  of  this  they  never  can  excel  you  ;  equal  is  all 
thev  can  do." 

After  staying  over  night,  the  time  all  spent  talking 
horse,  I  sailed  for  Auburn  city.  I  found  Joseph  in 
his  shop  wrestling  with  all  kind  of  cripples.  I  soon 
found  a  way  to  let  my  business  be  known. 

"Jo,"  said  I,  "when  you  have  leisure  I  have  got  a 
big  thing  on  the  horse  I  want  to  show  you." 

"I  thought  you  had  got  something,"  he  replied, 
"or  you  would  not  be  around.  If  you  liave  got  any- 
thing new  on  the  horse  I  want  to  learn  it.  I  will  be 
one  of  your  scholars." 

After  explaining  what  I  could  do  with  a  horse's 
foot,  he  said  : 

"  If  you  can  do  that,  and  not  produce  any  inflamma- 
tion, that  is  all  I  want  to  know ;  that  will  do  the  whole 
business.     I  want  to  see  that  done." 

"  We  must  have  a  horse." 

"I  will  find  a  horse.  There  are  stiff  horses  enouc^h  ; 
you  can  hardly  find  one  but  whatsis  stiff." 

"  We  want  one  that  is  bad." 

"  I  know  of  one  that  we  can  get.  She  is  six  years 
old.     She  is  so  stiff  that  after  driving  her,  when  she 


270  THE  horse's  rescue. 

comes  in  tlie  stable,  she  is  so  sore  that  she  will  lie 
down  near]}'-  all  the  time." 

"  You  will  find  it  will  bother  us  some  to  get  these 
horses  to  work  on.  Their  owners  are  afraid  we  will 
spoil  them." 

"  We  can  buy  them." 

"  Wo  do  not  want  the  horses.  The  best  way  I  have 
found  is  to  hold  ourselves  responsible  for  the  horse. 
There  is  no  risk  to  run  caused  by  the  work  we  will  do 
on  them      This  saves  their  lives  many  times." 

"All  rigfht;  that  we  will  do.  I  will  have  a  horse 
before  night." 

Business  was  hurried  up  in  tlie  shop.  We  got  the 
six-year-old  mare.  She  was  ow^ned  by  Mr.  Westlake. 
By  holding  ourselves  responsible  for  one  hundred  and' 
fifty  dollars  if  she  did  not  come  out  all  right,  we  got 
full  control  of  her.  She  was  fed  and  kept  in  Joe's 
barn. 

The  next  day  after  my  arrival  we  were  at  work  on 
a  horse.  Only  one  bill  was  put  up,  and  that  was  in 
Joe's  shop.  This  work  was  commenced  in  Auburn 
city  over  eight  years  previous  to  the  date  of  this  book. 
This  mare  was  badly  off  her  base  on  all  of  her  feet. 
On  her  hind  legs  above  her  ankles  were  large  air-puffs. 
The  woik  on  this  mare  was  done  all  at  one  time;  that 
is,  her  feet  were  all  prepared  and  expanded  at  one 
time.  •  She  was  changred  back  to  natural  at  once  ;  that 
is,  the  cause  was  removed.  Mr.  Westlake  was  to  see 
this  work  done.  I  well  knew  it  would  not  do  to  let 
him  see  it.  It  would  have  brought  the  whole  town 
down  on  us.  After  the  feet  were  prepared  they  were 
all  made  soft. 


THE   horse's  rescue.  271 

"All  read}^,"  Joseph  said;  "we  must  Lave  West- 
lake  here  now  to  see  this  work  done." 

*'  No,"  said  I ;  "  that  will  not  do.  We  must  put  the 
harness  on  her  first,  and  have  the  wagon  in  readiness 
at  the  door  to  hitch  her  on  as  quick  as  her  feet  are 
spread.  If  we  do  not  We  will  have  her  down.  We 
must  put  her  in  motion,  then  she  will  soon  recover 
from  the  chansre." 

Tne  spreading  was  all  done  as  quick  as  it  could  be, 
with  care  and  by  measure.  There  is  no  kind  of  use 
to  write  any  more  about  how  much  these  horses'  feet 
are  spread,  they  vary  so,  and  on  the  same  horse. 

After  this  work  was  done  we  hitched  her  to  the 
wagon  and  sailed  out  of  the  city  a  few  miles  and  back 
into  town.  Joseph  got  out  to  go  in  a  store  on  busi- 
ness and  left  me  sitting  in  the  wagon.  After  a  short 
time  this  mare  began  to  balance  over  back  and  for- 
ward, and  acted  as  though  she  was  about  to  fall.  She 
did  not  have  the  control  of  herself  yet  enough  to 
keep  on  her  eqiiiiibrium.  This  is  the  way  tiiey  all 
will  be  more  or  less,  according  to  the  degree  of  change. 
While  sitting  in  the  wagon  the  people  gathered 
around.  They  asked  me  what  ailed  my  horse.  I  re- 
plied, "  I  guess  she  is  all  well  enough."  "  That  mare 
is  sick  ;"  "she  ought  to  be  taken  out  of  the  harness;" 
"  she  is  dying  now ;"  "  she  ought  not  to  be  driven  any 
more." 

While  this  was  going  on  around  me,  Joseph  came, 
jumped  into  the  wagon,  and  we  sailed  out  of  that 
crowd  of  bewildered  people  to  the  barn,  put  the  mare 
up  for  the  night,  and  cared  for  her  the  same  as  I  have 


272  THE   horse's  rescue. 

done  for  all  others.  When  it  came  time  to  retire,  I 
said  to  Joseph  :  "I  am  going  to  bed.     I  am  tired." 

"  Are  you  not  going  to  do  anything  to  that  mare's 
feet  to  night?" 

^'  No ;  she  is  all  right." 

**  Her  feet  will  be  turned  all  wrong  side  out  before 
morning." 

"You  can  tell  better  in  the  morning.  I  will  pay 
for  her  if  they  are." 

When  I  got  up  Joseph  was  in  the  barn  caring  for 
his  horses. 

'*  Jo,  how  are  the  mare's  feet?" 

"  Tliey  are  cold  ;  there  is  no  heat  in  them." 

''  That  is  boss  ;  that  settles  the  whole  thing.  The 
air-puffs  are  all  gone ;  she  begins  to  show  her  deform- 
ity ;  it  will  take  time  to  bring  that  back.  Work  and 
exercise  will  bring  that  all  right  after  the  cause  is  re- 
moved on  all  horses;  but  remember  it  must  be  kept 
removed.  We  will  let  her  rest  awhile.  We  went  to 
the  shop.  Joseph  had  hands  at  work  for  him.  When 
we  got  there  the  shop  was  full  of  horses.  There  was 
a  long  row  there  waiting  to  have  their  feet  ironed. 
Joseph^  with  hat  in  his  hand^  walked  up  and  down 
this  row  of  horses,  looking  them  over,  I  suppose,  to 
sse  what  condition  they  were  in.  After  he  had  looked 
them  all  over,  he  swung  his  hat  around  over  his  head 
and  said,  "  I  can  cure  every  horse  in  this  shop  without 
u  particle  of  medicine." 

There  were  several  standing  around. 

"  Hold  on,  Jo,"  said  I.  "  They  will  call  you  crazy, 
as  they  have  me ;  you  will  get  in  the  lunatic  asylum 
the  first  you  know." 


THE   horse's   rescfe.  273 

My  advice  did  not  stop  his  bugle.  He  kept  it 
going.  That  helped  me.  Mine  could  rest  a  little. 
This  is  making  a  little  start  in  this  place,  sure.  Said 
Jo :  "I  have  got  a  six-year-old  mare ;  her  legs  stock 
up  behind ;  one  is  swollen  very  bad.  .  I  have  used 
lots  of  liniments.  I  cannot  take  it  out.  She  inter- 
feres badly,  too.  I  have  shod  her  heavy  and  light,  in 
all  ways  I  can  think  of,  but  it  has  all  done  no  good.'' 

"  Put  a  pair  of  spreaders  on  her,  Joe  ;  put  the  struc- 
ture of  her  feet  in  harmony  of  action,  and  the  swell- 
ing will  leave  so  quick  the  skin  will  be  all  loose  on 
her  legs.  It  will  stop  her  cutting  her  legs  off  at  the 
same  time." 

She  was  soon  in  the  shop.  Joe  did  this  work  him- 
self. We  spread  her  feet,  and  hitched  her  to  the 
wagon.  It  threw  her  on  her  base,  and  she  traveled  at 
once  about  eight  inches  apart.  The  swelling  did  go 
out,  and  left  the  skin  loose.  So  much  money  thrown 
away  for  liniments.  This  will  work  the  same  on  a 
large  per  cent  of  all  the  horses  on  this  globe.  This 
fever  has  its  rise  from  internal  heat  in  the  foot,  caused 
by  being  out  of  harmony  of  action.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary any  longer  to  write  all  the  particulars  about  how 
I  worked  on  the  different  horses  in  this  city.  The 
principles  are  already  laid  down  in  this  work  ;  that  is, 
as  far  as  I  had  got  at  that  time.  I  made  some  new 
discoveries  after  I  left  this  city. 

For  six  weeks  brother  Joseph  -and  myself  battled 
for  the  horse  early  and  late.  During  this  time  we  op- 
erated on  quite  a  number  of  horseti.  It  did  not  seem 
to  get  advertised,  and  this  was  the  reason  the  people 
would  get  their  horses  cured  and  say  nothing  about  it 


274  THE   horse's  rescue. 

They  thought  it  would  injure  the  sale  of  them  if  the 
people  knew  they  had  ever  been  stiff;  or  if  they  did 
sell  them  and  they  ever  got  stiff  again,  no  matter 
what  the  cause  was  that  made  them  so,  they  would  be 
likely  to  get  into  a  lawsuit ;  and  that  is  the  case  many 
times,  and  this  is  caused  by  ignorance.  If  this  science 
was  understood  it  would  save  a  vast  amount  of  trouble 
fi'om  that  soui'ce  and  many  others. 

"  Joseph,"  said  I,  one  day,  •'  I  am  going  to  leave  this 
place  now.  I  will  leave  the  unfinished  jobs  in  your 
care  to  finish  up." 

I  made  no  charges ;  presented  no  bill  to  any  man. 
This  is  the  place  where  I  received  five  dollars  from 
Mr.  Hatch  for  curing  his  horse.  He  insisted  on  my 
takinsf  it,  and  would  willins^lv  eive  me  four  times  as 
much  more.  He  knew  me,  and  had  for  many  years. 
He  told  me,  "Take  my  horse,  cure  him,  and  I  will 
pay  you  your  own  price."  Joe  did  tl]e  work  on  this 
horse.  I  shared  equally  with  him.  That  left  me  two 
and  a  half  dollars,  vvrhich  is  all  the  reward  I  have  ever 
]-eceived  from  any  man  for  work  done  for  them  aside 
from  shoeing  in  my  long  life  of  fort^^-one  years  bat- 
tling for  the  horse 

I  must  tell  you  a  little  stoiy  about  Mr.  Hatch's 
horse,  thea  I  will  leave  Auburn  city.  Mr.  Hatch, 
hearing  I  was  in  the  city  at  work  on  horses,  looked 
me  up.  Said  he:  "I  have  a  horse;  he  is  a  good 
seven-year-old  liorse;  he  is  stiff,  unable  to  work.  He 
was  so  when  I  got  him.  I  traded  for  him.  I  want 
you  to  go  and  look  at  him." 

"I  will  do  so." 

This  horse  was   turned  out  in   a  low,  wet  pasture. 


THE  horse's  rescue,  275 

We  found  him  standing  in  this  position  :  hind  parts  at 
least  eighteen  inches  higher  than  his  forwai'd  parts, 
with  his  forward  feet  in  the  mud  and  water.  He  had 
placed  himself  in  this  position  to  save  the  strain  on 
the  back  tendons.  He  could  stand  more  comfortable 
in  this  way.  The  mud  and  water  helped  keep  the 
fever  and  heat  out  of  his  feet  at  the  same  time.  In 
fact,  he  could  hardly  move  around.  We  pulled  him 
out  of  the  mud,  and  got  him  on  hard  ground.  He 
was  a  large,  noble,  fine-looking  young  horse,  with  flat- 
tish,  good  feet.  I  took  out  rav  foot  ho(;k  to  clean  out 
his  feet.  He  had  shoes  on.  While  cleaning  out  his 
feet  I  came  to  some  tow  or  cotton  packed  under  the 
shoe  at  the  toe.  I  commenced  to  dig  it  out.  I  knew 
it  was  of  no  use,  no  matter  what  it  was. 

"  What  is  this,  Mr.  Hatch  ?" 

"Well,  a  veterinarian  that  has  charge  of  the  street- 
car horses  toH  me  he  could  cure  him  by  bleeding  him 
in  the  toe,  then  turn  him  out ;  so  I  had  that  done." 

"How  much  blood  did  he  take  out?" 

"About  ten  quarts;  five  quarts  to  each  foot." 

"And  here  he  is  in  this  mud  hole  yet?" 

"Yes  ;  and  I  want  him  to  work." 

"What  do  vou  want  to  do  with  him  ?" 

"I  want  to  draw  hay." 

"You  can  have  him  to-morrow." 

Eeader,  such  ignorance  as  this  ought  to  be  exposed. 
Men  calling  themselves  veterinarians,  who  do  not 
know  anything  only  to  make  bad  worse  and  torture 
horses  in  this  way  and  m.any  others. 

I  told  Mr.  Hatch  what  ailed  his  horse.  I  towed  him 
to  the  shop,  and  now  I  will  tell  you  his  feet  were  con- 


2T6  THE  horse's  rescue. 

traded  some,  as  almost  all  horses  are  that  have  had 
their  feet  ironed.  This  was  not  the  worst  trouble 
with  this  horse.  He  was  badly  thrown  off  his  base  by 
cutting  his  heels  too  low  and  not  cutting  the  toe  down, 
leaving  the  toe  at  least  one  inch  and  a  half  too  long. 
This  was  a  short  job  to  remove  the  cause  of  all  of  this 
poor  horse's  trouble.  His  feet  were  soft ;  he  had 
soaked  them  himself.  I  did  the  work  on  this  horse. 
This  wonderful  wise  veterinarian  had  commenced  at 
the  toe  of  this  horse's  foot ;  cut  back  towards  the  point 
of  frog  crossways  at  least  two  inches  deeper  as  he 
went  back ;  he  had  cut  a  large  hole  through  in  this 
useless  hoof  in  order  to  reach  the  sensitive  part  of  the 
membrane,  as  it  is  called  by  some.  This  had  been 
done  long  enough  so  nature  had  in  a  measure  repaired 
the  damage.  The  first  thing  we  did  for  this  horse  was 
to  pare  these  feet  well  down  at  the  toe  until  this  hole 
was  all  gone,  cutting  but  little  from  the  heel,  just 
enough  to  true  and  level  his  feet  up;  cupped  them 
out  preparatory  to  spreading  his  feet  and  letting  the 
sole  down  to  its  proper  place.  We  spread  this  horse's 
feet  five-eighths  of  an  inch,  and  shod  him  on  his  hind 
feet.  Toward  night  I  led  him  home,  standing  on  his 
toes.  He  balanced  back  and  forward  a  little.  I  ex- 
plained that  to  Mr.  Hatch  ;  told  him  he  would  be  over 
that  in  the  morning.  He  could  put  him  to  work.  It 
would  be  better  to  do  so.  He  pulled  out  his  money  to 
pay  me. 

''  You  had  better  wait  and  see  how  you  like  the 
job,"  said  I.  ''  I  will  come  and  see  how  he  gets  along 
in  a  few  days." 

I  did  so.     He  was  drawing  hay.     This  horse  was  on 


THE   horse's   rescue.  277 

his  base,  head  up,  limber,  about  half  a  neck  ahead  of 
his  mate,  and  was  the  limberest  of  the  two.  Mr. 
Hatch  pulled  out  his  money  to  pay  me.  I  charged 
him  five  dollars.  It  was  not  the  money  I  wanted  ;  it 
was  to  introduce  this  science.  Some  may  call  this 
bragginc^.  I  will  say  right  here  that  when  all  such 
men  as  they  get  this  great  science  learned,  after  some 
one  else  has  studied  it  out  and  perfected  it,  they  will 
have  more  to  brag  about  than  they  have  now.  It  is 
not  my  intention  to  write  the  experience  of  my  broth- 
ers working  on  the  horse.  They  enlisted  in  this  horse 
fight,  and  have  been  at  it  ever  since,  and  show  no 
signs  of  giving  it  up.  I  have  got  it  started  in  two 
places,  by  two  practical  men  of  long  experience, 
working  on  the  horse. 

Kow  I  will  sail  back  to  the  old  battleground  in 
Horseheads.  When  I  started  out  on  this  campaign  I 
sold  out  all  of  my  interest  in  my  shop.  I  soon  secured 
another,  a  good,  new  shop,  rigged  up;  all  stocked  up 
new.  "I  must  have  money,"  said  I,  "or  I  shall  be 
shipwrecked  soon  in  this  way."  I  did  not  put  up  any 
sign.  I  never  had  a  sign  on  my  place  of  business,  but 
one,  in  all  of  the  places  I  have  done  business  in. 
I  soon  found  a  way  to  call  trade.  When  I  saw  a  lame, 
crippled  horse  I  went  for  him.  It  soon  spread,  and  in 
a  short  time  I  was  overrun  again  with  horses.  This  is 
the  way  I  always  advertise  when  I  commence  i  i  a  new 
place;  but  tliis  was  no  new  place;  this  was  liie  place 
where  I  got  jerked  out  of  a  wagon  head-first  U)v  talk- 
ing for  the  horse.  It  is  not  necessary  to  write  ;il]  the 
particulars  about  this  second  atcack  on  this  town, 
battlinsr  for  the  horse,  onlv  enough  to  lav  down  some 


278  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

principles  that  will  be  of  use  to  the  horse  and  his 
owner.  My  life  I  never  intended  to  write,  and  I  well 
know  no  one  else  can.  Neither  do  I  care  to  spend  rny 
time  in  that  way.  So  I  will  hasten  along  with  this 
work.  While  battling  in  this  town  a  man  came  to  my 
shop  to  get  a  horse  shod.  His  Ran>e  was  Wix.  He 
was  a  teamster.  His  was  a  large,  middle-aged  horse, 
ihin  in  flesh.  He  was  badly  off.  It  was  all  he  could 
do  to  stand  ;  he  was  thrown  back  off  his  base  on  all 
of  his  legs;  his  hind  feet  wei'e  thrown  forward  so 
much  by  this  same  cause  I  have  written  of  that  he 
appeared  about  to  go  over  backwards. 

"Mr.  Wix,"  said  I,  '"that  horse  is  so  far  gone  I  do 
not  think  I  can  balance  him  by  shoeing;  and  I  do  not 
think  he  can  stand  on  the  other  leg  if  I  was  strong 
enough  to  hold  him  up.  He  will  break  down  on  one 
leg.  He  cannot  stand,  that  I  knovv^ ;  but  I  will  try 
him." 

After  balancing  him  on  his  .forward  feet  first,  whicji 
helped  him  some,  I  tried  him  on  one  hind  foot.  After 
lifting  and  tugging  a  long  time,  with  a  large  proportion 
of  this  heavy  horse's  weight  thrown  on  me,  Mr.  Wix 
on  the  opposite  side  tr^Mng  to  hold  him  up,  that  is, 
from  going  over  sidewise,  I  finally,  by  main  strength, 
raised  his  foot.  The  other  leg  gave  out,  being  able  to 
hold  but  very  little  w-eight.  The  lever  tipped  him 
over*,  and  down  he  went  flat  on  the  floor.  Mr.  Wix 
pounded  him,  and  after  struggling  a  wdiile  he  managed 
to  get  on  his  feet  again.  This  was  in  the  heat  of  the 
Burnmer,  and  a  very  hot  day. 

"  Mr.  Wix,"  said  I,  "  this  horse  will  not  be  of  use 
to  you  if  we  do  shoe  him ;  he  cannot  be  balanced   by 


THE   horse's   rescue.  279 

shoeing  so  lie  can  work  or  stand  long.  I  do  not  tliink 
he  can  stand  on  one  ]es:  \oy\s:  enouofh  to  shoe." 

Mr.  Wix  said  he  could  hokl  bini  up.  He  must  liave 
him  shod,  so  at  it  he  went.  After  struggling  a  long 
time  he  manag:ed  to  raise  a  foot.  Down  went  the 
horse  broadside  ;  then  he  must  be  pounded  up  again. 
Wix  tried  it  again  with  like  result.  I  did  not  like  to 
give  this  job  up,  so  I  tried  a  new  plan.  The  horse  had 
shoes  on,  and  his  feet  were  quite  long.  I  cut  the  hoof 
off  at  the  toe  and  around;  cut  the  nails  out  in  this 
way.  We  got  the  shoes  off,  then  cut  the  hoof  awry 
on  the  under  side  at  the  *toe.  That  helped  him  some  ; 
it  let  him  go  forward  on  his  base  a  little.  Then  I  tried 
him  again.  After  a  hard  struggle  for  me  and  him, 
Wix  holding  him  all  he  could  to  keep  him  from  fall- 
ing over,  I  succeeded  in  getting  his  foot  up  without 
his  falling.  I  worked  as  fast  as  I  could,  cutting  the 
hoof  awaj  at  the  toe,  holding  his  weight  at  the  eame 
time :-  holdino"  his  foot  up  onlv  a  short  time  and 
chanofing  legs  often.  In  this  way  I  let  his  body  go 
back  on  his  base  bv  deo^rees.  After  a  loni2:,  hard  struo,-- 
I'le  I  got  him  shod.  In  this  way  I  shortened  his  toes 
and  pared  them  down  at  heel  and  toe,  the  toe  the 
most ;  gave  him  a  long  shoe  at  the  heel ;  corking  the 
shoes  the  highest  at  the  heel.  This  was  the  best  I 
could  do,  shoeing  this  poor  horse,  and  as  well  as  any 
man  can  do  for  a  horse  in  like  condition  without  ex- 
})anding  the  foot  and  putting  the  structure  of  the  foot 
in  harmony  of  action,  which  his  Was  fearfully  out  of 
order. 

Reader,  you  may  ask,  "Why  did  not  you  do  that?" 
You  ought  to  know  by  this  time.     How  can  a  man  do 


280  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

anything  when  others  will  not  Jet  liim? — wlien  they 
will  only  gather  around  him  and  fight,  and  blart  a  lot 
of  nonsense? 

After  a  few  days  Mr.  Wix  came  into  the  shop. 

"Doan,  that  horse  is  dead." 

"How  is  that?" 

"I  found  him  down  this  morning  oat  doors  on  the 
manure  pile,  unable  to  rise.  I  took  the  axe  and 
knocked  him  in  the  head,  and  took  him  to  tho  bone- 
yard." 

"How  did  he  get  outdoors?  " 

"The  door  of  the  stable  was  behind  his  stall.     He 
broke  his  halter  and  knocked  the  stable  door  off  tlie 
inges. 

The  fact  is,  he  was  tipped  over  backwards  with  con- 
traction and  leverage,  as  thousands  are.  This  lever 
works  both  ways,  and  there  is  a  power  in  it.  It  has 
tipped  this  horse  over  ;  and  the  discovery  of  this  will 
tip  over  and  shove  from  the  base  some  institutions,  so 
that  no  power  can  put  them  back,  built  as  they  are  on 
false  teachings  and  no  principles  or  foundations,  only 
tinkering  at  the  effect. 

There  are  two  levers  that  tip  horses  over  back- 
wards. They  both  work  in  harmony  of  action  ;  they 
are  both  caused  b}^  contraction  ;  the  fulcrum  of  both 
is  at  the  center  of  the  foot,  above  tho  coffin-joint.  One  . 
runs  up  the  leg  ;  the  other  runs  out  at  the  toe,  beyond 
the  point  of  hoof.  That  is  not  seen,  and  yet  it  is 
equal  in  length  to  the  other.  When  any  degree  of 
contraction  takes  place,  the  levers  both  start  at  the 
same  time.  They  are  connected  at  the  center;  they 
are  not  independent  of  each   other   when  contraction 


THE   horse's   rescue.  281 

takes  place.  The  useless  growth  of  hoof  on  the  toe, 
if  there  is  no  contraction,  is  the  end  of  the  lever.  How 
can  these  poor  horses  stand,  thrown  in  this  position? 
Feet  moved  forward,  or  body  back— have  it  either 
way  if  you  please,  it  is  all  the  same — this  lever  run- 
ning up  the  hind  leg  to  the  extreme  point  of  the  horse, 
with  two-thirds  of  his  weight  at  the  end  of  the  lever, 
and  with  his  feet  thrown  forward,  caused  by  contrac- 
tion. Follow  that  lever  down  to  the  fulcrum  ;  look 
the  horse  over ;  look  at  that  lever-purchase  breaking 
him  down ;  then  look  at  the  one  on  the  toe  of  equal 
length  working  in  harmony  with  it,  one  lifting,  the 
other  pulling  down.  There  is  some  power,  I  want  you 
to  know  and  see.  These  principles  will  not  lie,  nor 
can  they  be  ruled  out.  Contraction  works  the  same 
on  all  of  the  feet  on  all  horses  expanding  too  much. 
I  have  explained  that  the  length  of  these  levers  varj^ 
on  the  same  horse.  The  length  they  can  get  is  accord- 
ing to  the  size  of  the  horse  and  the  degrees  of  con- 
traction. "When  the  horse  gets  as  bad  as  Wix's  was^ 
the  lever  is  farther  away  from  the  fulcrum,  as  long  as 
the  horse's  leg  is,  and  to  the  extreme  point  behind,  I 
mean  as  far  as  the  horse's  body  extends.  Of  course 
there  could  not  be  any  lever  beyond  where  there  is 
weigiht.  On  this  horse  science,  when  a  horse  is 
thrown  in  this  way,  there  is  no  powder  that  can  raise 
him  except  his  foot  is  expanded,  or  it  can  expand 
itself  as  his  creator  intended  it^  should.  Reader,  I 
want  you  to  understand  that  these  poor  horses  endure 
some  suffering  before  this  takes  place.  This  is  called 
by  the  ignorant,  strained  across  the  loin.  About  that 
they   are   right.      The    horse  is  strained  across  the 


282  THE   horse's   rescue. 

loin,  and  badly  too;  but  the  cause  they  know  nothing 
of.  A  horse  thrown  in  this  way  will  struggle  hard  to 
retain  his  feet,  and  many  times  he  is  crammed  with  all 
kinds  of  trash,  bled  and  blistered,  when  the  cause  all 
lies  in  his  feet. 

In  the  fore  part  of  this  work  I  left  a  horse  that  had 
not  been  balariced  up.  He  was  badly  off  his  base. 
He  had  become  spavined.  He  went  over  backwards, 
and  horses  would  go  more  off  their  bose  were  they  not 
divided  against  themselves.  Beino-  on  their  base  for- 
•ward  saves  them  somewhat.  Sometimes  it  will  not 
do  that.  When  they  get  verj^  bad  behind  they  must 
go  down.  Being  on  a  constant  strain  all  of  the  time, 
and  drawing  loads,  or  traveling  in  any  way,  and  rising 
over  that  lever,  all  out  of  harmon}'',  the}''  are  soon 
ruined  in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  To  balance  them 
up  only  adds  more  effects  in  number.  By  splitting  it 
"up  it  only  makes  this  entanglement  more  complicated. 
Not  a  cause  is  removed.  It  prolongs  their  sufferings. 
Sometimes,  and  many  times,  it  causes  their  death  by 
suffering.     I  have  seen  lots  of  this  kind. 

After  battling  alone  in  this  town,  woi-king  on  all 
kinds  of  cripples,  from  far  and  near,  ten  months,  not 
one  soldier  could  I  enlist  to  take  hold  of  this  science. 
My  health  was  fast  giving  out,  and  money  too.  I  de- 
cided to  sell  my  property  and  try  a  new  field.  I  soon 
did  this.  When  I  wanted  to  sell  I  always  put  on  a 
selling  price.  It  always  went.  I  collected  all  I  could 
by  asking  for  it.  Some  I  took  in  promises  that  have 
never  been  fulfilled.  The  old  gray  mare  I  sold  on  one 
year's  time ;  that  is  due  now.  I  must  collect  that.  I 
want  to  see  her,  and  see  how  she  fares,  and  see  if  she 


THE   horse's   rescue.  283 

s  limber  yet.  She  is  four  miles  away,  if  tlieraaonwns 
her  yet  that  I  sold  her  to.  I  had  not  seen  this  mare 
from  the  time  I  sold  her,  nor  her  owner.  I  went  on 
foot.  I  found  all  at  home.  The  man  paid  me.  I  told 
him  I  wanted  to  see  her.  We  went  to  the  barn.  She 
stood  there  with  a  row  of  horses,  with  a  rack  of  black, 
moldy  hay  before  her,  and  with  plenty  manure  enough 
to  lie  on ;  very  poor  and  dirty  ;  no  one  could  have 
sworn  for  certain  she  vras  the  same  mare  I  sold  to  him 
one  year  previous. 

I  did  not  let  him  know  what  I  wanted  to  see  this 
rnare  for.  There  was  a  boy  stood  b}^  I  told  him  I 
would  like  to  see  her  move  off  a  little.  She  had  shoes 
on.  This  boy  was  soon  on  her  back,  sailing  her  up 
and  down  the  road.  I  saw  at  a  glance  she  was  limber, 
and  more  so  about  the  shoulders  than  she  was  when  I 
sold  her.  That  was  what  I  went  four  miles  on  foot 
through  deep  mud  to  see  if  working  another  yeai- 
after  the  cause  was  removed  would  make  any  more 
improvement.  It  did.  She  was  as  limber  as  'any 
horse,  and  had  as  good  knee  action  as  she  ever  had.. 
In  that  all  horses  vary  some.  I  asked  him  if  she  ever 
had  been  lame  in  any  way  since  he  owned  her.  He 
said  she  had  not. 

Eeader,  this  man  never  knew  this  mare  had  ever 
been  stiff  or  lame  before  he  bought  her,  and  he  does 
not  know  what  mare  it  is  ;  neither  does  any  that  once 
knew  her,  except  the  Woodrough ^brothers.  I  found 
out  what  I  went  for,  and  sailed  hom.e. 

Next  thing  was  to  look  up  a  new  field.  I  set  sail- 
I  made  up  my  mind  to  start  somewhere  in  the  lake 
country.     I  stuck  my  stake  at  Lake  Ridge,  six  miles 


284  THE   horse's  rescue. 

from  where  I  commenced  to  learn  the  trade  of  horco- 
shoeing,  and  four  miles  from  the  place  I  first  started 
business  for  myself.  Lake  Eidge  is  situated  on  tlie 
east  bank  of  that  beautiful  sheet  of  water  Lake  Cay- 
uga, with  as  beautiful  surrounding  country  as  a  man 
ever  looked  at.  In  a  very  short  time  I  had  a  new 
shop  erected  in  a  cheap,  rough  manner.  All  I  wanted 
was  to  work  on  the  horse.  That  was  to  be  my  busi- 
ness in  this  place,  and  I  wanted  no  other.  I  put  up 
one  bill  in  this  shop,  and  went  for  the  first  cripple  I 
could  get.  I  was  soon  overrun  witb  all  kinds.  I  did 
not  say  much  about  spreading  horses'  feet  for  several 
months.  I  well  knew  that  would  scare  them  away; 
stopping  them  from  interfering,  balancing,  equalizing 
their  weight  on  their  feet;  straightening  run-over  feet^ 
and  many  other  troubles  the  horse  is  suffering  with, 
caused  by  shoeing,  was  what  I  did  and  talked  about. 
I  will  give  you  a  few  lessons.  While  I  was  in  this 
place  a  stranger  led  in  a  pair  of  horses.  He  wanted  a 
shoe  set.  I  saw  one  was  lame  and  stiff  on  his  forward 
feet  While  setting  the  shoe  on  the  other  I  learned 
they  were  young  and  twins.  They  were  a  good  pair. 
I  said  to  him  : 

"Would  you  like  to  have  that  other  horse  cured?" 
•*'Yes." 

"  How  long  has  he  been  stiff  and  lame  ?" 

"It  is  about  two  years." 

"I  will  cure  him  for  the  price  of  shoeing." 

"You  may  shoe  him." 

All  that  ailed  this  horse  was  run-over  feet  In  ten 
days  he  was  nearly  well,  and  soon  recovered  entirely. 
This  man  told  me  after  his  horse  got  well  about  taking 


THE  horse's  rescue.  285 

him  to  Prof.  Law,  of  Cornell  University,  to  have  him 
examined.  This  horse  had  a  very  small  enlargement 
on  the  inside  of  his  leg.  The  professor  told  him  that 
was  the  cause  of  his  lameness,  charged  him  twelve 
shillings,  and  wrote  a  prescription  to  get  filled  that 
cost  ten  shillings.  The  horse  must  not  be  worked 
while  under  treatment.  The  man  could  not  get  along 
with  his  work  at  that  time  without  using  this  horse, 
so  the  medicine  was  never  used.  I  shod  that  horse 
over  three  years.  He  was  all  right  as  far  as  the  most 
of  people  can  see.  He  was  not  lame.  So  much  for 
professors. 

This  is  only  one  case  of  hundreds  of  this  kind  that 
I  balanced  up  while  I  staid  in  that  place.  After  get- 
ting a  good  run  of  business  and  well  established  I 
thought  I  would  venture  a  little  further.  It  would 
not  kill  my  business  dead.  If  it  did  scare  some  away, 
there  had  got  to  be  more  cripples  than  I  wanted. 

Mr.  Jefferson  lived  near  this  place.  He  was  the 
owner  of  a  stallion.  I  had  seen  him  several  times. 
He  was  badly  off  his  base  on  his  for\^ard  legs ;  his 
knees  were  badly  tipped,  weak,  and  shook  ;  cords 
seemed  thick;  legs  swelled.  This  horse  was  well 
along  in  years,  and  had  been  in  this  condition  a  long 
time.     I  said  to  Mr.  Jefferson  : 

"  Would  you  like  to  have  that  horse's  legs  straight- 
ened and  all  the  swelling  taken  out  so  you  could  see 
the  cords  and  tendons  clear  down^o  his  feet?" 

**  Well,  yes,  I  would  if  it  could  be  done." 

''Well,  sir,  it  can  be  done.  He  can  be  made  as 
natural  as  he  ever  was." 

I  told  him  all  about  how  I  would  do  it,  and  how  he 


286  THE   horse's   rescue. 

would  be  afEicted.  For  a  short  time  he  would  be  af- 
fected more  on  oce  leg  than  the  other.  That  would 
cause  him  to  limp.  It  would  last  only  a  short  time  on 
this  horse. 

I  did  not  put  on  spreaders.  This  horse  I  could  fix 
v/ithout.  He  was  a  heavy  horse.  His  weight  was 
over  the  center  of  his  foot.  His  heels  were  too  high, 
contracted  some.  The  principles  are  already  l*aid  down 
in  this  work  that  I  do  this  work  on.  There  are  only 
a  very  few  horses  that  can  be  cured  in  this  way.  This 
was  one  of  that  kind.  I  mean  expanding  by  their 
own  weisrht. 

To  cut  this  story  short,  I  gave  him  directions  what 
treatment  to  give  the  horse  :  Soak  and  wash  the  cords 
in  warm  water;  drive.  In  a  short  time  all  would 
come  right.  Away  he  went  for  home.  I  well  knew 
I  had  started  a  racket,  but  there  is  nothing  like  being 
prepared  for  it.  In  a  day  Or  two  I  saw  Mr.  Jefferson 
drive  past  my  shop.  His  horse  was  lame.  He  stopped 
at  the  hotel  across  the  way  from  my  shop.  He  sat  on 
the  verandah,  looking  over  toward  my  shop.  I  was 
in  my  shop  at  work,  at  the  same  time  watching  his 
movements.  I  wanted  to  have  a  talk  with  him.  He 
showed  no  signs  of  com.ing  to  the  shop.  I  left  my 
work,  walked  over  and  sat  down  on  the  verandah.  I 
saw  he  looked  rather  sober.     Said  I : 

"Mr.  Jefferson,  how  is  the  horse?" 

"He  is  awful  lame.  I  wanted  to  go  about  three 
miles  further,  but  I  think  I  had  better  go  home.  It 
will  not  do  to  drive  him.  If  I  get  home  with  him  I 
will  do  well." 


THE   horse's   rescue.  287 

"You  know,  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  told  jou  in  advance 
how  this  would  all  be." 

"Yes;  I  know  you  did." 

"If  you  will  do  as  I  told  you,  you  will  come  out 
all  right,  and  your  horse  the  same.  Drive  your  horse 
where  you  want  to  go.  Before  you  get  back  he  will 
be  nearly  over  his  lameness,  and  will  gradually  get 
stronsf  and  better  all  of  the  time  until  he  is  entirelv 
well." 

He  started  out.  His  horse  was  quite  lame.  After 
he  had  gone,  there  was  a  man  v/ho  told  me  what  Jef- 
ferson said  before  I  came  over  from  the  shop.  He  did 
not  tell  me  anything  new.  I  had  been  through  the 
mill.  He  said,  "  I  guess  I  have  let  that  old  fool  spoil 
my  horse."  This  is  not  all  the  place  he  told  it.  I 
knew  he  would  before  I  commenced  to  work  on  his 
horse.  I  cared  nothing  for  that.  They  nearly  all  do 
the  same.  I  well  knew  he  would  be  my  friend  in  the 
end,  and  he  was,  and  is  now,  as  far  as  working  on  the 
horse  is  concerned. 

In  a  short  time  Jefferson  drove  in  the  place.  He 
said  he  had  been  where  he  wanted  to  go,  and  had  come 
out  of  his  way  to  tell  me  that  before  he  got  three  miles 
his  horse  was  entirely  over  his  lameness. 

"  He  has  got  over  the  change  now,"  said  I.  "  You 
will  have  no  more  trouble." 

His  tune  was  changed  in  my  favor. 

Kow  this  horse's  head  had  began  to  come  up.  In  a 
short  time  he  had  as  clean,  straight,  tapering  legs  as 
anv  colt.  Mr.  Jefferson  said  it  added  seventv  five 
dollars  to  his  value  at  once.     This  job  did  some  adver- 


288  THE  horse's  rescue. 

tising,  bat  that  was  not  all  I  wanted.     I  wanted  them 
to  learn  and  know  how  this  was  done. 

When  I  first  commenced  in  this  place,  the  landlord 
bought  a  good  four-year-old  horse.  I  stood  near  when 
thej  was  looking  this  horse  over.  I  saw  he  was  off 
his  base.  Of  course  it  is  no  business  of  mine.  They 
are  nearly  all  so  in  some  degree,  greater  or  less.  I  did 
not  have  anything  to  say.  I  saw  he  had  a  hard,  horn- 
like foot,  and  he  would  be  likely  to  have  me  shoe  him. 
He  would  be  kept  up  in  the  j^table ;  he  would  grow 
worse  and  get  stiff,  in  spite  of  all  I  could  do,  in  a  short 
time;  and  he  did  gradually  grow  worse.  The  winter 
before  he  was  sick;  in  the  spring  he  would  get  down, 
or  cast,  and  had  to  be  helped  up,  caused  by  contrac- 
tion throwing  him  off  his  base  or  balance,  and  fasten- 
ing him  there.  This  winter  he  stood  in  the  stable 
nearly  all  of  the  time.  His  owner  did  not  have  much 
for  his  horses  to  do.  He  did  not  get  out  much  him- 
self, his  health  not  being  very  good.  Time  slipped 
away  unperceived,  and  this  horse  stood  with  his  shoes 
on  all  winter,  without  being  reset  or  having  his  feet 
cut  down.  His  feet  had  grown  high  and  long  in  this 
condition,  all  out  of  harmony  of  action.  They  gave 
him  a  thirty-two  mile  drive  after  a  load,  up  and  down 
heavy  hills,  which  about  floored  him.  He  was  so  sore 
and  stiff  he  could  hardly  move.  He  would  not  move 
unless  he  was  made  to.  Of  course  I  was  always  around 
when  these  wrecks  took  place.  I  knew  about  what 
time  they  would  take  place.  I  told  Mr.  Ives,  for  that 
was  his  name,  what  ailed  his  horse,  and  I  thought  I 
could  cure  him.  "lean  remove  the  cause  of  all  of 
his  trouble.     It  will  be  a   hard  job ;  his  feet  are  in 


THE   horse's   rescue,  289 

about  the  worst  condition  of  any  I  ever  worked  on." 
After  making  a  conditional  bargain  with  him,  I  went 
to  work  on  this  horse.  Reader,  here  is  a  lesson.  I 
dread  to  tackle  this  horse  again.  His  feet  were  very 
high.  About  half-way  from  the  top  of  his  foot  to  the 
bottom,  they  were  pinched  in  all  around.  H3  had  to 
be  changed  by  degrees.  This  shell  could  not  be  all 
cut  away  at  once.  I  cut  his  feet  down  as  far  as  I 
could,  and  spread  them.  They  were  as  hard  as  they 
could  be  ;  it  took  a  long  time  to  get  them  soft  enough 
to  operate  on  with  safety.  At  this  time  I  did  not  have 
control  of  this  horse.  I  exercised  him  myself.  This 
was  a  tough  job.  I  wanted  this  horse  used  every  day. 
In  about  four  weeks  I  took  off  his  shoes,  cut  his  feet 
down,  spread  again,  and  so  on  every  four  weeks.  I 
wanted  to  do,  but  I  could  not  have  him  in  my  control 
to  do  as  I  liked  ;  so  I  quit  and  let  him  go.  I  kept 
watch  of  him.  His  shoes  were  allowed  to  remain  on 
three  months.  His  toes  got  long;  the  structure  of  his 
foot  was  nowhere  in  harmony  of  action  when  I  quit 
him.  He  was  not  driven  on  the  road.  At  that  time 
of  the  year  he  was  working  on  the  farm,  plowing,  and 
putting  in  crops  in  the  spring.  It  did  not  hurt  him  to 
rise  over  that  lever  on  soft  ground  as  bad  as  it  did 
when  he  was  sailed  on  the  hard  road.  He  took  one  of 
these  sails;  it  wrecked  him  at  once.  Of  course  I  was 
around  again.  This  poor  horse  was  in  a  terrible  suf- 
fering condition.  T  told  Mr.  Ives  what  ailed  his  horse. 
He  thought  the  trouble  all  lay  in  his  shoulder.  He 
did  not  have  much  shoulder ;  he  was  deformed  so. 
This  time  he  was  so  stiff  he  had  to  be  pulled  along. 
Mr.  Ives  I  saw  was  getting  discouraged  about  his  horse 


290  .      THE  horse's  rescue. 

He  was  not  such  a  horse  as  he  wanted.  He  made  him 
so  much  trouble  that  he  began  to  talk  of  taking  him 
off  to  have  his  shoulders  doctored,  or  dispose  of  him 
in  some  way.  I  made  up  my  mind,  while  I  was 
around  looking  at  this  poor  horse,  to  rescue  him,  let  it 
cost  what  it  would.     I  said  to  Mr.  Ives : 

*'  What  will  you  take  for  this  horse  ?  " 

"You  dare  not  make  me  an  offer." 

"Oh,  yes,  I  dare.     I  will  give  you  fifty  dollars." 

"  He  is  yours." 

I  pulled  him.  across  the  road  to  my  barn.  N'ow  I 
have  got  this  horse  in  my  control.  Whether  I  can 
cure  this  horse  or  not,  I  can  help  him  wonderfully  in 
about  one  hour  by  dressing  his  feet  down.  There  was 
no  time  lost  nntil  this  job  was  completed.  I  put  on  a 
pair  of  spreaders,  cutting  his  feet,  and  letting  him  go 
back  on  his  base  some.  I  soon  had  both  of  his  feet 
in  warm  water,  soaking,  washing  his  legs  and  cords. 
I  soaked  his  feet  the  remainder  of  that  day,  and  packed 
them  at  night.  The  next  day  I  drove  him  eight 
miles  and  back,  up  and  down  heavy  hills  single,  and 
he  drew  a  heav}^  load  of  stock  for  my  shop.  He 
sailed  very  comfortably,  no  limpmg,  and  yet  all  the 
cause  I  had  removed  then  was  what  I  cut  off  his  toes  ; 
that  shortened  the  lever  some.  After  making  his  feet 
as  soft  as  I  could,  I  spread  them  about  three-eighths  of 
an  inch.  Of  course  it  affected  him  badly  at -first. 
The  shell  and  sole  of  his  feet  were  just  like  horn,  and 
did  not  seem  to  have  any  life  in  them.  The  shell  was 
completely  dead  and  shrinking  all  around  the  sensitive 
part  of  his  feet.  When  I  spread  his  foot  I  did  not  see 
the  shell  come  down.     He  was  on  his  base ;  his  weight 


THE   horse's   rescue.  291 

was  nearly  over  the  center  of  his  feet,  and  yet  it  did 
not  press  the  sole  down.  This  was  a  hard-meated, 
sti-ong,  ambitious  horse.  This  sole  must  be  got  down 
according  to  the  degree  I  have  spread  bis  foot,  or  there 
will  be  trouble.  To  do  this  I  led  him  out  of  the  shop. 
He  was  badly  off  his  base,  caused  by  my  spreading 
his  feet.  His  feet  internally  were  very  sore ;  any 
change  either  way  would  affect  him  badly.  A  num- 
ber were  standing  around.  I  put  a  boy  on  the  horse 
and  told  him  to  run  him  a  hundred  rods  and  back, 
The  road  was  drv  and  hard.  After  he  returned  I 
looked  to  see  if  the  sole  had  come  down.  I  cleaned 
the  dirt  all  out  under  the  shoe.  It  was  not  down  as 
far  as  it  ought  to  come  by  spreading  his  feet  three- 
eights  of  an  inch.  "Grive  him  another  sail."  I  looked 
to  see  what  effect  that  had.  The  sole  was  nearly  down 
flat  on  the  shoe.  "That  will  do."  It  made  him  step 
short.  His  feet  must  be  put  in  warm  water  a  short 
time.  Next,  pack  his  feet,  give  him  a  good,  dry,  soft 
bed,  so  he  can  lie  down  and  rest  and  sleep. 

Of  course  w^hile  this  running  business  w-as  going  on 
in  the  streets,  it  called  out  remarks.  Some  said  they 
would  not  have  a  stiff  horse  used  that  wav.  All  this 
bugling  I  cared  nothing  about.  I  knew  w4iat  I  was 
doing  and  they  did  not.  I  was  the  owner  of  the  horse 
and  could  control  him.  It  took  this  horse  ten  or 
twelve  days  to  recover  every  time  I  expanded  his  feet, 
and  tbat  I  did  once  a  month  for  a  long  time.  Some- 
times I  would  be  sailing  all  right,  or  nearly  so ;  once  a 
month  I  would  be  partly  wrecked.  Every  time  this 
took  place,  I  could  hear  this  :  "That  horse  is  worse; 
I  guess  you  will  never  do  much  for  that  horse. 


292  THE   horse's   rescue. 

After  working  on  him  many  months  to  get  rid  of 
that  old,  dead,  lifeless  shell,  his  foot  was  smaller  than 
it  was  when  I  first  commenced.  How  is  this?  I  had 
got  up  to  the  small  place  in  his  foot.  Now  I  can  go 
ahead.  ISTow  I  have  got  where  I  can  flatten  out  his 
foot  and  it  begins  to  show  more  life.  Kemember,  this 
horse  did  all  of  my  work,  long  and  short  drives,  and 
was  driven  on  purpose  to  give  him  work,  and  I  had  all 
the  exercise  I  wanted  in  the  shop  at  the  same  time, 
balancing  cripples  ;  in  fact,  it  was  getting  red-hot  for 
me.  So  I  made  up  my  mind  to  have  a  little  rest  after 
getting  up  my  crippled  horse  in  good  shape.  To  leave 
for  a  while,  I  sailed  out.  I  had  business  in  New  York, 
Washington,  and  Chicago,  tracking  up  a  shipwreck 
somebody  had  made  of  one  of  my  inveutions.  To  please 
myself  I  wanted  to  find  the  cause  of  it — that  is,  where 
it  was  located.  It  had  made  quite  a  racket  for  many 
years.  I  hauled  in  at  the  center  of  this,  our  great  re- 
public. I  always  had  time  to  spend  looking  after  the 
interest  of  the  horse. 

You  can  see  me  standing  in  the  streets  of  New  York 
city  for  hours  looking  at  the  condition  of  horses  as 
they  passed.  The  flat  feet  seem  to  stand  it  the  best 
on  all  horses.  All  cupping  feet  that  I  saw  were  in  a 
very  bad  condition,  and  the  horses  that  had  that  kind 
were  badly  out  of  harmony  of  action,  off  their  base 
and  bahmce  in  many  ways,  which  I  have  already  de- 
scribed and  explained.  My  time  was  mostly  spent 
while  in  this  city  looking  at  horses.  I  next  sailed  to 
Washington.  While  standing  on  the  verandah  of  the 
hotel  I  saw  coming  down  a  beautiful,  smooth  drive- 
way toward  this  hotel  a  very  nice  single  turnout     I 


THE    HOESE's    IiESCUK  298 

saw  the  horse  was  a  prompt  driver.  He  was  quiet 
lame  in  one  forward  foot-.  The  rig  pulled  up  at  a 
post.  There  was  only  one  man  in  it.  He  jumped  out, 
tied  his  horse,  and  went  into  the  hotel.  I  looked  his 
horse  over.  He  was  a  fine,  beautiiul  young  horse, 
His  hair  looked  as  though  somebody  had  tried  to  take 
good  care  of  him;  but  he  was  a  cripple  on  all  of  his 
legs.  One  of  his  knees  was  badly  tipped  forward  ;  on 
this  leg  was  a  badly  contracted  foot  and  high  heel ; 
the  mate  was  a  little  better ;  the  hair  was  nearlv  all 
burned  off  his  legs  all  around  his  feet.  They  looked 
as  though  turpentine  had  been  burnt  on  them.  Tins 
gentleman  did  not  stay  long  in  the  hotel.  He  soon 
was  sailing  again  after  this  cripple.  I  did  not  intend 
to  stop  long,  so  I  thought  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  get 
up  any  racket  here  on  the  horse.  While  this  gentle- 
man is  sailing  around  I  will  give  you  a  little  descrip- 
tion of  him.  He  had  on  his  head  a  very  shiny  stove- 
pipe hat;  white  vest;  pants  the  same,  and  white 
gloves ;  he  is  sailing  around  here  again.  He  jumped 
this  time  clear  from  his  wagon  on  the  top  steps;  he 
has  a  cane  under  his  arm  about  the  size  of  a  pipe- 
stem,  with  a  ribbon  tied  to  it.  Well,  I  suppose  he 
carries  that  because  he  wants  to.  He  went  in  the  hotel 
again.  When  he  comes  out  I  am  going  to  try  and  see 
how  close  I  can  get  to  him  talking  horse,  and  not 
shock  him  awav  from  me.  This  kind  of  men  are 
very  sensitive.  I  find  my  long  experience  has  taught 
me  that  one  of  the  most  skilful  things  a  man  ever 
tried  to  do  is  to  approach  some  men  and  begin  to  talk 
about  the  defects  of  their  horse,  and  not  shock  them 
away  from  you;  and  yet  these  horses  are  all,  or  nearly 


2  94  THE  horse's  rescue. 

all,  cripples  that  have  been  shod  in  some  wa}'.  I  am 
going  to  ti'y  this  man  when  he  comes  out.  I  can  stand 
as  bi<j:  a  shock  as  he  can.  I  never  have  been  shocked 
off  my  base  3^et,  and  I  have  had  lots  of  shocks  from 
nian}^  directions  at  the  same  time.  I  placed  myself  by 
his  horse  on  the  side  the  crooked  leg  was  on.  Ttjeplan 
was  with  me  to  be  looking  at  his  horse's  forward  feet. 
He  came  out  and  commenced  untying  his  horse. 

"I  see  vou  have  a  fine-looking;  horse  here,"  said  L 

'•  Yes^  he  is  a  good  one." 

"I  see  he  favors  one  foot  a  very  little." 

"  Yes,  he  has  been  foundered  twice.  I  have  just 
been  having  him  fired." 

"What  does  that  cost?  " 

'•  Five  dollars  each  time.  I  have  had  him  fired 
twice  now." 

"  Don't  you  know  vv^hat  miakes  your  horse  lame ;  look 
at  his  feet  ;  can't  you  see  this  foot  he  is  lame  in  is  not 
like  the  other  in  any  wa}-  ?  It  is  contracted  feet  that 
ails  your  horse.  That  burning  will  do  him  no  good; 
it  will  make  him  worse." 

I  shocked  him  in  his  w^agon  telling  him  the  truth. 
He  said  the  horse  was  good  enough  for  him.  and  away 
he  sailed.  The  last  of  him  that  I  saw  was  the  top  of 
his  hat.  My  God  !  is  there  any  hope  of  cases  like 
this?  I  meet  thousands  of  such,  and  have  for  many 
years.  Of  course  it  is  impossible  to  write  in  detail  ail 
that  has  come  under  my  observation,  looking  over 
this  field  of  cruelty  to  the  horse.  I  stopped  on  my  re- 
turn trip  a  while  in  Baltimore.  There  seems  to  be  a 
transfer  through  that  city  by  horses.  All  of  the  cars 
have  to  be  drawn  through.     The  horse  has  very  heavy 


THE  horse's  rescue.  295 

loads  to  draw.  It  is  one  continual  whip  and  slash 
during  the  whole  time.  If  these  poor  horses  were 
in  shape  to  draw,  it  would  not  be  quite  so  bad.  As  it 
is,  it  is  fearful  on  them. 

While  I  was  in  New  York  city  on  my  return,  I  met 
mv  old  friend,  Hiram  McConnell.  I  told  him  I  was  in 
the  old  business  yet,  buttling  for  the  horse.  No  im- 
pression on  him  could  be  made  yet,  I  saw.  I  sailed  for 
Lake  Ridge.  I  stopped  for  the  night  within  sixteen 
miles  of  home,  at  a  hotel.  !Moi-ning  came.  Whilesit- 
ting  in  the  bar-room,  one  of  m}^  neighbors  came  in. 
He  seemed  to  be  sui'prised  to  see  me. 

"  Why,  here  is  Doan.  Your  family  will  be  awful 
glad  to  see  you.  It  is  talked  all  over  the  country  you 
have  gone  oQ.  crazy,  never  more  to  return. 

This  was  Dotliing  new  to  me.  This  man  was  badly 
off  his  base.  He  asked  me  to  lend  him  a  dollar.  I 
refused  to  let  him  have  it,  and  told  him  his  family 
would  be  glad  to  see  him  at  home.  I  left  him  and 
sailed  home.  Of  course  I  was  crazy.  I  had  got  to 
running  around,  and  the  meanest  of  all  was  I  did  not 
tell  everybody  when  I  w^as  going,  and  what  my  busi- 
ness was.  In  a  few  days  I  sailed  west,  to  Chicago, 
looking  horses  over  in  different  states  and  in  Canada. 
These  fields  I  have  looked  over  many  times  in  my 
life.  Canada  is  the  worst  for  botch- work  on  the 
horse's  foot  of  all  the  country  I  have  sailed  over.  I 
soon  sailed  in  home  asrain. 

Previous  to  this  sail  I  closed  my  shop,  packed  my 
shoeing  tools,  and  went  to  Philadelphia  to  try  to  intro- 
duce the  science.  It  was  in  the  hight  of  the  Centen- 
nial, and  but  little  attention  could  be  attracted,     I  had 


296  THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 

a  long  talk  with  Howell  Gerard  in  that  city,  the  cele- 
brated horse-shoer.  I  think  he  could  have  been 
enlisted.  He  had  a  stable  of  horses  of  sixty,  with 
shoeing-shop  connected.  It  was  all  rush  headlong. 
At  that  time  their  attention  could  not  be  attracted. 
My  time  was  mostly  spent  looking  over  this  great  field, 
of  slaughtering  horses,  and  here  they  were,  in  the 
wholesale  business  at  that.  They  were  killing  them 
so  fast  they  had  to  have  men  employed  to  clear  them 
away  as  fast  as  they  killed  them.  It  is  a  sickening 
sight  to  see  two  deformed  horses  suffering  every  step 
they  take,  before  a  long,  heavy  car,  full,  inside  and 
out,  of  people,  the  whip  playing  on  them  nearly  all  the 
time.  Some,  perhaps,  are  only  going  sixty  rods  ;  and 
what  all  this  hurry  and  rush  is  for — what  they  are  in 
pursuit  of  that  causes  them  to  huriy  so — I  cannot 
understand,  unless  they  see  a  cent  ahead.  I  suppose 
they  are  afraid  somebody  will  have  a  bigger  pile  when 
they  come  to  die  than  they.  I  can  see  no  other  excuse 
they  can  give.  It  is  a  want  of  feeling,  I  suppose,  for 
the  poor,  suffering  horse,  or  they  could  not  do  it. 

I  returned  to  Lake  Ridge  again  and  oj>ened  my  shop. 
I  have  not  quit  in  this  place  yet.  While  working  in 
my  shop  a  man  from  Ithaca  drove  up.  He  said  he 
bad  two  valuable  horses ;  they  were  both  stiff ;  one  he 
had  with  him.  They  were  valued  by  him  at  about 
seven  liundred  dollars.  I  think  his  name  was  How- 
land.  Ko  matter.  He  asked  me  if  I  could  cure  them. 
"  Yes,  I  can  if  I  can  have  them  ;  this  one  I  can,  I 
know."  He  told  me  if  I  would  come  up  to  his  place 
and  look  at  his  horse  he  would  pay  my  fare  and  give 
me  my  dinner.     "  I  think  that  would  hardly  pay,"  said 


THE   horse's   rescue.  297 

I ;  "  I  can  make  a  few  dollars  here  at  home."  Then 
he  made  another  offer.  *'  If  yon  will  come  to  Ithaca 
I  will  build  yon  a  shop." 

"  I  have  a  shop  and  house  of  my  own  here." 

"You  could  get  more  work  up  there.'' 

*'I  have  enouirh  to  kill  four  men  here.  I  do  not  do 
half  the  work  that  comes  here.  I  can't  stand  so  much 
hard  work.     I  am  getting  old  and  stiff  myself." 

"Well,  I  am  going  to  bring  my  horses  here  for  you 
to  shoe." 

"That  you  had  not  better  do.  It  is  a  long  way  to 
come.  I  am  full  nearly  all  of  the  time.  It  might  not 
be  so  I  could  shoe  them.  I  cannot  cure  your  horses 
by  shoeing  them." 

Another  offer:  "If  you  will  cure  this  horse  I  will 
make  you  a  present." 

"I  do  not  work  for  presents." 

"  Well,  I  will  give  you  ten  dollars." 

"  I  would  not  do  it  for  ten  dollars.  It  is  worth 
more  than  that  to  cure  anv  stiff  horse." 

"  Will  you  shoe  her?" 

"  Yes." 

She  interferes  behind  badly  ;  heels  low,  toes  long, 
contracted  badly,  and  off  her  base  on  her  forward  feet 
She  had  flat  shoes  on  her  forward  feet.  I  commenced 
to  work  ;  he  commenced  to  give  orders  how  it  should 
be  done.  Those  shoes  were  all  right  to  go  on  again; 
no  ne\Y  shoes  must  be  used.  I  soon  saw  there  was  no 
use  trying  to  teach  him  anything.  When  a  man  has 
got  that  far  advanced  he  knows  all  there  is — about  as 
far  as  a  man  can  get — it  is  dangerous  to  try  to  get  any 
farther.      He  might  supersede  the  great  Jehovah.     I 


298  THE   horse's   rescue. 

saw  I  could  do  nothing  for  him.  I  shod  his  horse  the 
best  I  could.  Then  he  began  to  talk  cure  horses 
again.  I  told  him,  "If  you  will  bring  your  horses 
here,  pay  the  keeping,  and  let  me  have  full  control  oC 
them,  I  will  take  cp.re  of  them,  and  cure  the  two  for 
fifty  dollai's."  lie  drove  off.  That  was  the  last  I  saw 
of  that  generous,  noble-minded  man. 

While  I  was  operating  in  this  place,  brother  Oliver 
stuck  his  stake  in  a  nev/  place  about  twelve  miles 
from  me,  at  Groton,  there  to  try  and  start  curing  stiff 
horses  without  medicine.  I  saw  and  talked  w-ith  him 
many  times  to  learn  how  the  battle  was  going.  He 
said  it  was  red-hot.  He  got  horses  and  cured  them 
for  all  that.  Some  came  from  many  miles  away. 
While  I  was  operating  at  Lake  Eidge  something  took 
place  that  caused  quite  a  racket.  It  was  this:  The 
boys,  I  call  them,  but  they  were  as  big  as  they  ever 
would  be,  asked  me  to  lecture.  "  What  subject  do  you 
want  me  to  lecture  on?"'     "  Oh,  choose  vour  own." 

Whether  they  were  in  fun  or  not  I  did  not  know.  I 
rather  thought  they  were.  They  said  they  would 
furnish  house,  light  it,  and  put  up  bills.  I  should  be  at 
no  expense  or  trouble. 

Notice  was  given  out  before  the  bills  were  up.  I 
saw  they  were  not  going  to  get  the  bills  up,  so  I  saw 
to  getting  them  printed,  paid  for  them,  and  sent  some 
to  different  places,  putting  them  up  myself  over  the 
country.  The  time  came.  I  had  quite  a  full  house. 
I  lectured  in  an  old  deserted  Baptist  church.  I  told 
them  I  was  going  to  try  and  see  how  big  a  field  I  could 
work  and  experiment  on,  talking  or  lecturing  on  scien- 
tific principles,  taking  the  whole  Bible  for  the  text  or 


THE   horse's   rescue.  299 

center,  then  sail  around  and  work  up  the  outside.  I 
told  them- before  I  started  it  was  only  an  experiment. 
I  made  it  go  so  well  it  shocked  them,  and  it  was  felt 
for  manj  miles  away.  I  told  tbem  I  would  try  it 
again  the  next  Saturday  night.  When  the  time  came 
I  was  there  at  my  post.  The  house  was  closed  ;  no 
getting  in.  There  was  no  one  around  only  the  neigh- 
bors, with  one  exception,  and  that  man  was  John  Cor- 
win.  I  had  shocked  them  all  away  but  him.  He  told 
me  the  people  thought  I  was  crazy.  I  told  him  that 
was  nothing.  They  would  soon  recover  fjom  that. 
They  were  only  shocked  a  little.  On  this  experiment 
I  came  near  sailing  into  the  lunatic  asylum.  Some 
thought  I  ought  to  be  taken  care  of,  and  yet  I  had 
harmed  no  man.  Well,  it  was  only  a  lot  of  bigots  and 
peaked  heads.  I  think  there  is  not  much  danger  yet. 
It  spread  over  quite  a  large  field  that  I  was  crazy. 
There  was  one  that  took  great  pains  to  tell  this  all 
over.  He  had  kept  it  up  for  more  than  a  year,  so  I 
thought  I  would  try  another  experiment.  This  is 
where  I  experimented  on  lying,  to  see  bow  fast  it 
would  multiply,  and  how  far  they  would  sail.  This 
man's  name  was  Mr.  Yorhees.  I  had  done  his  shoe- 
ing for  many  years.  I  liked  him,  and  do  now,  and  he 
liked  my  work.  I  went  to  my  shop.  There  were 
several  there  sitting  around.  I  told  them  I  had  bad 
news  to  tell  them.     "  What's  up  now  ?" 

"  Mr.  Vorhees  is  crazy  !" 

Some  made  one  remark,  some  another.  All  told 
what  the  cause  must  be  of  his  losing  his  reason.  In  a 
few  hours  it  was  many  miles  away,  multiplying,  spread- 
ing.    It  had  started,  and  there  was  no  stopping  it     It 


300  THE   horse's  rescue. 

was  news  for  three  months  to  some,  and  I  do  not  know 
but  it  is  going  yet.     It  is  about  me 

Since  I  have  commenced  to  write  this  book  I 
have  had  letters  from  parties  threatening  to  put  me 
in  the  asylum,  there  to  remain  the  remainder  of 
my  days,  and  during  the  same  time  I  have  been 
obliged  to  write  twenty-six  pages  answering  letters.  I 
commenced  and  numbered  the  pages  so  they  could 
make  a  book  to  sell.  It  would  save  them  the  trouble 
of  writing  one.  One  of  these  men  was  a  purple-nosed 
lawyer.  How  much  it  cost  to  color  his  nose  I  do  not 
know.  It  did  not  cost  him  much.  He  was  one  of  the 
kind  that  sells  us  out.  I  think  I  am  in  my  right  mind 
yet,  allowing  me  to  be  the  judge.  I  have  stood  it  re- 
markably well  considering  the  surroundings.  I  will 
have  you  know  it  takes  quite  a  good  head,  and  he 
needs  to  be  a  good  financier,  to  sail  clear  of  the  asylum 
and  not  get  crazy  ;  to  work  on  horses,  cure  them  with- 
out medicine  with  so  much  opposition.  But  I  am 
going  to  try  a  little  longer.  This  horse  that  I  am  at 
work  on  now,  his  name  is  Prince.  The  soreness  has 
nearly  all  gone  out  of  his  feet,  and  yet  his  shoulders 
seem  somewhat  stiff.  I  tracked  this  horse  back  to  a 
colt.  I  found  he  had  been  kept  up  in  the  stable 
nearly  all  of  his  life  on  account  of  his  being  unruly 
and  shod  very  young;  before  he  had  got  his  growth. 
He  had  grown  up  a  deformed  horse;  he  could  not 
bear  to  have  a  toe  cork  on  his  shoes.  It  would  sore 
him  on  his  cords  on  hard  roads.  If  his  feet  were 
allowed  to  get  half  an  inch  long  it  would  affect  him 
the  same.  I  kept  this  horse  nearly  two  years.  He 
gradually  grew  better.     I  never  put  any  corks  on  his 


THE    horse's    rescue.  301 

shoes.  In  the  winter  I  put  in  what  are  called  frost 
nails.  The  heads  stuck  up  along  the  shoe  on  the 
sides  ;  none  in  the  toe.  When  they  wore  off  I  drew  them 
and  put  in  more  ;  beveled  the  toe  of  shoe  off  to  save 
the  leverage.  In  this  way  I  could  sail  him  sixty  miles 
in  ten  hours,  and  be  would  be  no  worse  for  doing  it. 
I  mean  after  I  bad  spread  his  feet,  got  the  structure  of 
his  feet  all  in  harmony  and  kept  them  so.  He  was  a 
good  horse  and  a  hard  one  to  follow.  He  was  a  nice- 
coated  dapple-brown,  in  fine  condition  when  I  let  him 
go  to  rescue  another  that  was  about  dead,  caused  by 
abuse,  night  and  day  drives,  and  poor  care.  I  must 
give  you  a  description  of  this  animal  as  she  stood  tied 
to  a  post.  Hooked  her  over,  that  is,  her  bones,  for  I 
could  see  some  of  them  in  many  places.  As  for  flesh 
she   had   none    ou,  and   the  hide  was  off   and  worn 

* 

through  to  the  bones  with  the  harness.  Her  hair  was 
faded  and  dead  ;  the  hide  on  her  ribs  was  set ;  no  stir- 
ring that ;  blood,  scabs,  and  sores  on  every  ankle.  She 
stood  with  her  head  down.  She  was  sick.  She  rattled 
badly  in  her  throat  at  every  breath.  I  saw  she  had  a 
fine,  clean,  cordy  deer  leg,  and  points  about  her,  if  she 
had  good  care,  that  would  make  a  good  sailer.  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  rescue  her.  She  was  only  six  years 
old.  While  I  was  looking  this  mare  over  the  owner 
came  out  of  the  hotel.  I  asked  him  if  he  ever  traded 
horses. 
"Yes." 

''I  have  a  horse  that  I  will  trade  for  that  mare." 
After  looking  mine  over  he  said  he  v>/ould   trade 
even.     I  told  him  all  right.     We  changed  horses  in 
front  of  the  hotel.     There  were  quite  a  number  stand- 


302  THE  horse's  rescue. 

irig  around.  I  took  my  frame  over  near  my  shop  and 
let  her  pick  some  grass.  When  she  put  her  head 
down  to  eat  she  disch argued  badlv  at  the  nose  and 
rattled  in  her  throat.  She  was  very  cross.  If  I 
rubbed  her  on  the  ribs  she  would  try  to  bite  and  kick 
me  at  the  same  time  She  appeared  savage,  and  w-as 
when  I  first  got  her  and  put  feed  into  her.  If  I 
attempted  to  go  toward  her  she  would  jump  at  me, 
mouth  open,  and  kicking  with  both  feet  at  the  same 
time.  Poor  horse!  she  was  so  near  starved  to  death 
she  was  afraid  she  would  lose  some  of  her  feed.  She 
ate  ravenousl}^  and  as  fast  as  she  could,  and  kept 
watch  at  the  same  time. 

Now  for  a  man  to  make  a  horse  trade  like  this  is 
evidence  enough  that  reason  is  dethroned.  No  mat- 
ter; I  am  going  to  loosen  the  hide  on  this  mare  and 
use  no  medicine;  cure  that  rattling  in  her  throat  and 
heal  every  sore  on  her  by  removing  the  cause.  The 
place  to  begin  is  at  the  feet.  There  is  the  place  I 
always  begin,  after  giving  the  horse  water  and  a  good 
square  meal.  She  is  rather  dangerous  to  handle,  she 
is  so  sore.  The  danger  will  disappear  gradually  as  the 
sores  do.  and  she  will  quit  kicking  and  biting  at  me 
after  she  gets  over  being  afraid  of  starving  to  death. 
Her  feet  were  badly  out  of  order  in  many  ways.  After 
straightening  them  up,  I  washed  her  sore  ankles  off 
clean  with  soft,  warm  water,  and  took  her  to  the  barn. 
I  had  a  small  piece  of  corn  just  beginning  to  harden 
up.  I  cut  it,  corn  and  stalks,  and  threw  it  in  to  hei'. 
She  would  stamp  her  feet,  kick,  eat,  bite,  and  jump  at 
me  if  I  came  near  her  when  she  was  eating.  She  was 
in   constant  motion   all  of  the  time.     I  think  I  never 


THE     HORSES     RESCUE.  303 

saw  a  horse  in  my  life  so  nervous  as  this  one,  all 
caused  by  suffering,  starvation,  and  abuse.  She 
looked  wild  out  of  her  eyes.  She  had  a  large,  wild- 
looking  eye.  Some  told  me  I  would  get  killed  with 
some  of  these  horses  yet. 

At  this  time  I  had  rented  out  my  shop.  I  did  not 
work  for  others  on  horses,  for  this  reason,  I  had  been 
badly  injured  in  the  shop  working  on  a  horse.  From 
that  injury  I  have  never  recovered.  I  was  hardly 
able  to  take  care  of  my  own  horses  for  two  years.  I 
had  to  change  my  cjurse  then.  In  order  to  live  and 
provide  for  my  family  I  went  to  trafficking,  that  is, 
buying  at  wholesale  what  I  thought  I  could  market 
and  make  a  little  on.  This  business  I  followed.  That 
was  the  business  I  was  doing  when  I  rescued  this 
mare.  It  was  sailing  on  the  road,  sometimes  long 
drives.  I  put  this  mare  the  next  day  after  I  got  her 
on  the  road  ;  fed  her  well.  She  was  soon  all  clear  of 
her  cold,  no  rattling  in  her  throat.  Her  hide,  as  she 
put  on  flesh,  began  to  loosen  ;  holes  in  her  skin  where 
the  bones  liad  worn  it  through,  slowly  filled  out.  My 
little  boy,  twelve  years  of  age,  took  care  of  these 
horses  As  she  gained  in  flesh  sVie  became  less  nerv- 
ous by  degrees.  Stamping,  kicking,  and  biting  nearly 
all  disappeared.  A  truer  and  kinder  horse  and  better 
sjiiler  on  the  road  or  on  a  load  I  never  wish  to  sit  behind. 
I  have  given  you  only  a  little  sketch  of  the  hard  wres- 
tles I  had  in  this  place.  I  stopped  five  years  here. 
My  health  gave  out.  I  could  not  stand  sailing  on  the 
road  nor  wrestle  with  hores  any  more  as  I  was  then  ; 
that  I  could  not  do.  I  thought  perhaps  I  might  go 
West,  keep  cattle,  and  make  a  living  that   way.     I 


304  THE   horse's   rescue. 

soon  found  a  customer  for  my  place,  and  made  a  sale. 
This  mare  brought  ninety-six  dollars.  She  had  a  very 
bad  name  as  being  ugly  and  cross  cr  she  would  have 
brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  dolUirs.  When  she 
was  led  out  to  sell  I  think  I  never  saw  a  finer  picture 
of  the  horse  kind.  This  mare  never  haJ  a  particle  of 
medicine,  either  internal  or  external,  while  I  owned 
her,  although  some  said  I  doctored  her  up.  It  was  all 
done  by  kind  treatment,  good  care,  and  feed,  and 
worked  nearly  all  of  the  time;  nicely  haired  over  in  a 
little  over  a  year.  Look  at  her  sores  and  scabs!  I 
did  not  cure  this  mare,  I  only  removed  the  cause,  and 
I  did  that  when  I  rescued  her. 

In  three  months  after  I  let  Prince  go  I  saw  him. 
He  was  so  sore  he  could  hardly  go.  They  had  shod 
him  and  slaughtered  him  the  first  time.  He  had  the 
damnedest  botch  job  done  on  him  I  ever  saw ;  toggled 
up  on  corks  at  least  an  inch  long,  and  nothing  right 
about  the  whole  job.  He  soon  changed  hands.  ISText 
he  was  ten  miles  away  in  a  team  drawing  heavy  loads, 
going  good  ;  and  I  saw  him  since  I  have  been  writing 
this  book  pass  drav/ing  a  heavy  express,  going  well. 
I  saw  him  only  a  few  days  ago  standing  before  abuggj^ 
in  this  place.  I  looked  him  all  over.  He  looked 
well ;  his'  feet  looked  well ;  he  stood  well  on  his 
legs  ;  did  not  appear  to  be  sore  ;  it  is  about  six  years 
since  I  first  spread  his  feet.  There  are  only  a  few  as 
hard  cases  as  Prince  was  to  get  on  his  base.  I  never 
had  as  hard  a  case  in  all  of  my  work  on  the  horse. 

I  am  going  to  sail  out  of  this  place  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri Kiver  on  the  plains.  I  stopped  in  Lincoln,  ISTe- 
braska.   awhile.      Of    course  my    time  was  all  spent 


THE    horse's    RESCrE.  805 

looking  over  the  sale  stables.  There  were  lots  of 
horses  changing  hands  in  this  place,  some  very  good 
horses.  The  most  of  them  were  in  some  degree  stiff. 
They  poured  in  from  nearly  all  the  states  and  from 
Canada,  but  I  saw  that  very  few  sound  ones  had  shoes 
on.  I  saw  a  very  fine  looking  pair.  They  were  some 
along  in  years.  I  saw  their  feet  were  badly  con- 
tracted. I  took  up  their  feet  to  look  at  them.  Their 
frogs  were  all  gone  ;  their  feet  had  some  trash  in  them 
that  looked  like  verdigris.  Horses  in  this  country,  if 
they  iron  their  feet,  get  stiff  very  quick  for  this  reason  : 
they  do  not  have  much  rain  ;  the  feet  contract  very 
fast.  I  selected  me  a  farm  on  the  winding  trail  called 
the  old  Santa  Fe  route.  This  was  a  great  thorough- 
fare. Horses  and  mules  were  constantly  passing  in 
droves. 

I  had  a  good  chance  to  look  them  over  as  they 
passed,  all  more  or  less  stiff  or  ofi  their  base.  I  built 
what  is  called  a  house.  While  I  was  at  that  there 
were  almost  daily  horses  driven  up  around  my  shanty. 
Some  days  several  teams,  all  stiff  ;  some  so  sore  they 
would  be  covered  with  sweat;  some  lame.  They 
were  all  horses  brought  in  from  other  states.  They 
all  wanted  to  sell  me  a  team.  I  was  not  ready  to  buy 
yet.  It  was  rather  laughable  to  hear  them  brag  of 
their  poor  cripples,  and  warrant  them  sound  ;  and  some 
old  horses  had  got  to  be  quite  young  again.  I  did  not 
stay  long  on  the  plains.  I  found- it  wanted  a  tougher 
man  than  I  was  then  to  care  for  a  herd  of  cattle;  and 
that  was  not  all.  There  was  more  wind  than  I  wanted 
to  sail  in  at  the  time.  I  sailed  east  this  time.  Brother 
Oliver  was  moving  to  Auburn  city   to   try  and  see 


•   SOQ  THE  horse's   rescue. 


what  luck  he  would  have  in  that  place  introducing 
curino-  horses  there  without  medicine  in  brother 
Joseph's  shop;  back  in  the  rear  of  Joseph's  hack, 
livery,  and  boarding  stable  he  commenced  this  busi- 
ness, Joseph  doingall  he  could  to  help  him.  It  went 
slow;  no  money  to  fall  back  on.  He  was  soon 
starved  out,  and  was  obliged  to  go  to  work  by  the 
day  for  others  in  order  to  live,  and  thai  was  what  I 
found  him  doing  when  I  sailed  into  this  city  from  the 
west.  This  is  the  third  time  I  have  lived  in  Auburr. 
After  getting  settled  I  went  to  his  place  of  business  to 
have  a  talk  with  him.  He  was  at  work  for  another 
man,  and  at  the  same  time  curing  stiff  horses.  He 
had  some  on  his  hands  all  of  the  time  caring  for.  He 
continued  on  in  this  way.  I  was  sick  and  unable  to 
do  work  of  that  kind.  I  did  but  very  little  work  for 
six  months.  After  resting  up  for  six  months  I  began 
to  feel  better.  I  decided  to  tackle  the  horse  again.  I 
well  knew  I  could  not  hold  out  long,  for  this  is  hard 
business  and  poor  pay,  not  enough  to  live.  The  first 
thing  to  be  done  is  to  curtail  expenses.  I  started  out 
to  find  a  place.  I  found  a  small,  new  shop,  with 
rooms  over  the  shop.  It  was  deserted,  empty,  five 
miles  south  of  Auburn.  I  found  this  was  for  sale.  I 
bought  it  for  four  hundred  dollars,  and  I  rigged  up 
new  ao^ain  to  try  and  introduce  this  great  science. 
This  is  where  this  work  is  written,  over  my  shop  with 
a  checker-board  for  my  writing-desk,  with  a  Scieniific 
American  spread  over  it.  The  first  thing  when  I  came 
ill  this  place  was  to  commence  to  talk  this  science^ 
How  could  I  introduce  it  unless  I  did  ?  No  one  knew 
u.iything  about  it  but  me,  and  they  never  would  un- 


THE    horse's    rescue.  307 

less  I  talked  and  tried  to  teach  it.  The  first  thing  was 
to  tackle  the  first  cripple  I  could  get.  This  was  the 
second  time  I  had  been  in  tliis  place.  Through  the 
influence  of  some  of  my  friends,  after  a  long  time,  I 
got  a  cripple  to  work  on.  In  a  short  time  I  found 
myself  obliged,  in  my  old  age,  to  work  for  less  pay 
than  I  ever  had  in  m}'  life,  and  nothing  but  cripples 
to  woi'k  on.  Of  these  I  had  more  than  I  wanted 
The  price  of  shoeing  was  dropped  down  as  soon  as  I 
opened  my  shop.  Of  course  I  must  do  it  the  same, 
or  have  no  woi'k,  and  m}^  work  was  all  stiff,  lame 
cripples,  four  times  as  much  work  to  do  it.  My 
health  was  not  good  enough  to  do  this ;  it  wasn't  what 
I  opened  this  shop  for.  I  had  made  up  m}^  mind  to 
cure  no  more  horses  by  expanding  their  feet  for  no 
pay  and  make  others  rich  and  grow  poor  mj^self,  and 
they  not  learn  or  even  try  to  learn  this  great  science. 
I  will  bury.  As  for  killing  myself,  and  all  for  no  pur- 
pose, only  being  in  hell  red-hot  all  the  time,  that  busi- 
ness is  about  plaj^ed  out. 

Reader,  this  is  the  way  I  began  to  reason  with  my- 
self. I  found  my  brothers  began  to  feel  the  same. 
They  had  done  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  work 
to  try  to  introduce  this  work,  and  yet  no  help  c;;me. 
That  is  what  we  wanted.  We  wanted  the  people  to 
give  their  attention  and  see  and  learn  this  science.  I 
have  had  men  in  my  shop  getting  their  horses  shod, 
who,  when  I  tried  to  tell  them  what  made  their  hoises 
stiff,  would  say :  "I  don't  want  to  hear  anything 
about  it.  I  am  in  a  hurrv;  I  never  had  a  stiff  horse 
in  mv  life."  These  same  men's  horses  were  so  stiff 
they  could  not  back  without  drngging  every  foot.    Th© 


308  THE   horse's  rescue. 

cause  of  their  talking  so  was  they  had  become  so 
accustomed  to  driving  and  using  stiff  horses  they  did 
not  know  when  they  were  stiff.  While  I  was  in  this 
place  battling  for  the  horse,  brother  Oliver  got  back  in 
liis  old  place  in  the  rear  of  Joseph's  hack  stable,  there 
to  tr}^  it  again.  We  met  often  and  talked  the  matter 
over,  and  to  compare  notes,  so  as  to  see  bow  the  battle 
was  going.  We  thought  we  were  gaining  slowly.  Of 
course  all  of  the  shoers  were  on  our  backs,  and  veteri- 
narians the  same.  The  last  time  I  saw  Oliver  we  were 
riding  after  a  horse  that  had  been  laid  up  for  six 
months  unable  to  work.  He  had  had  this  horse  only 
a  few  days.  He  was  now  able  to  sail  and  keep  doing 
it,  and  grow  better  for  it.  He  told  me  he  was  able  to 
cure  these  horses  yet,  and  carry  twelve  men  on  his 
back,  if  they  did  not  drag  their  feet  on  the  ground  too 
much.  After  I  had  been  at  Fleming  Hill  six  months 
I  saw  a  very  fine  young  dapple  gray  stallion  pass  my 
pltxce  of  business.  I  saw  he  was  badly  oS.  on  his  for- 
ward feet. 

I  soon  learned  he  was  owned  by  a  man  in  Auburn, 
He  was  kept  near  me  during  the  summer.  I  saw  him 
many  times.  I  saw  he  was  getting  worse  all  the  time. 
I  did  not  mention  this  to  any  one.  It  was  no  use.  I 
would  not  be  allowed  to  touch  him  ;  besides,  I  did  not 
want  to  get  my  old  wounds  torn  open  anew ;  but  I 
watched  the  horse.  In  the  fall  he  was  so  crippled  he 
could  hardly  get  along.  I  learned  he  was  formerly 
owned  by  D.  M.  Osborn  &Co  ,  and  had  become  almost 
useless.  They  must  get  rid  of  this  horse  in  some 
way.  He  is  of  no  kind  of  use  to  us.  Orin  H.  Bur- 
dick,  of  thaafirm,  bought  him.     What  he  paid  for  him 


THE   horse's  rescue.  309 

I  know  not.     In   the   fall  Mr.  Burdick  brought  this 
horse  to  J.  J.  Doan's  stable   to  have  him  kept  for  a 
while.     Joseph  saw  the  condition   this  poor  horse  was 
in  at  a  glance.     He  told  Mr.  Burdick  his  horse  could 
be  cured   for  fifteen   dollars,  no  medicine  used,  and  a 
cure  warranted  or  no  pa}^    I  have  no  time  to  do  it.     I 
can  bring  a  man  that  will   do  it.     Oliver  soon  came 
around.     They  told  him  all  about  the  operation.     Mr. 
Burdick  soon  saw  the  principle  was  all  right.     He  left 
the  horse  in  their  cui'e  completely,  and  never  got  weak 
in  the  knees  or  head  since  he  first  enlisted  in  this  army 
battling  for  the  horse,  which  I  shall  show  before  I  get 
through  this  work.     Oliver  had  made  quite   a   start 
previous  to  this;  he  had  cured  several   horses  for  dif- 
ferent parties,  and  Dr.  Quigly  was  one.     He  proved  to 
be  a  Q^ood  soldier.     He  is  a  scientific  man.     He  soon 
saw  the  principle  was  all  right.     I  saw  that  with  such 
men  as  these  to  help  we  could  make  it  go  now.     They 
w^ere  not  afraid   to  talk  and  tell  the  truth.     We  have 
got  in  the  hands  of  men  of  science,  men  that  can   see 
the  change  in  their  horses  at  once  and  how  it  is  done. 
I  was  soon  in  Auburn.     I  found  Oliver  in  a  box 
stall  with  this  gray  stallion.     '"  Now,"  said  he,   "  we 
have  got  a  good  horse  and  a  good  man.     This  horse 
is  well  known  to  be  a  cripple ;  he  is  a  fine  one,  and  a 
liorse  that  will   attract   attention,  and  I  am  going  to 
c-ire  him.     I  have  got  this  business  in   the  firm  where 
I  have  been   trying  a   long  time,-^and   on   this  horse 
iiaugs  the  whole  business.     If  this  job  does  not  wake 
up  the  people  I  am  going  to  bury  the  whole  science." 
While  we  were  talking  Mr.  Burdick  came  in.     I  told 
him  what  we  had  been  trvin^c  to  do  for  ten  years,  and 


310  •        THE   horse's  rescue. 

we  wanted  him  to  help  by  talking,  if  this  job  pleased 
him.  He  told  Oliver  he  should  have  all  the  horses  he 
wanted,  and  at  it  he  went.  He  was  quite  a  horse  lec- 
turer in  that  town.  When  such  mechanics  asBuidick 
indorse  this  great  science  small  heads  have  to  stand 
back,  and  they  did.  It  has  been  quite  calm  since,  as 
far  as  fighting  against  us  has  been  concerned.  It  had 
effect  iive  miles  away  at  least  in  this  direction  ;  it 
calmed  the  racket  around  me  and  infused  n.ew  life  in 
me.  I  told  Oliver:  "Now  is  the  time  to  write  this 
work.  It  will  sell  now.  I  will  go  home  and  com- 
mence. You  keep  at  work.  I  went  to  Auburn  quite 
often.  I  walked  in  the  stable  to  find  Oliver;  there  I 
always  went  first  to  find  him.  He  had  a  fine  saddle 
horse  to  work  on  that  belonged  to  D.  M.  Osborn, 
sti-aightening  his  legs,  taking  air-puffs  off,  balancing 
at  the  same  time.  There  were  seven  or  eight  of  the 
most  scientific  men  in  Auburn  city  taking  lessons  on 
the  horse.  One  was  CjM-enus  Wheeler,  the  patentee 
of  the  Cayuga  Chief  harv^esting  machine.  Bui'dick  had 
waked  them  up.  He  was  there,  and  Di'.  Qaigly  and 
sevei'al  otljers.  I  saw  it  was  a  eo  this  time.  After 
thev  left  I  swune:  mv  hat  over  mv  head.  I  could  not 
help  it.     I  told  the  boys: 

"  It's  a  go  this  time  !" 

So  much  for  a  good,  honest,  live  man  to  help. 
When  w^e  can  get  such  men  as  these  enlisted  it  will 
go.  '"They  are  known  all  over  the  woi'd,  neai'ly,  and 
it  has  gone  ever  since,  and  it  cannot  be  stopped  now. 
It  lias  taken  a  heavv  load  off  tliree  men's  shoulders 
that  was  hard  to  cai-ry.  We  had  cari'ied  it  for.  many 
years.     Mr.  Wheeler  has  had  a  horse  fixed,  John  Os- 


THE   HORSES  RESCUE.  311 

born  two,  Mr.  Burdick  three,  all  of  this  firm  and  many 
others  of  this  city.  There  is  no  discount  on  tliivS 
science.  Oliver  was  up  here  a  few  days  ago.  While 
he  was  here  the  man  that  keeps  Mr.  Burdick's  stallion 
drove  into  town  The  stallion  is  kept  near  me.  We 
looked  him  over.  He  is  as  limber  and  sound  as  any 
colt,  and  stands  his  forward  legs  back  of  straight, 
head  up,  and  needs  no  gagging  to  make  him  do  it; 
he  is  one  of  the  best  stallions  now  in  the  country  that 
I  know  of  for  raising  stock  for  many  reasons:  he  is 
the  best  dispositioned  stallion  I  ever  saw  ;  he  is  pow- 
erfully built,  well  proportioned,  good  at  both  ends, 
just  the  right  size,  a  beautiful  dapple  gray.  Six  months 
ago  this  poor  horse  was  a  worthless,  suffering  cripple. 
He  has  been  out  of  his  suffering  many  long  months. 
That  was  done  by  this  science  of  spreading  feet.  This 
horse's  feet  were  spread  an  inch  and  a  half  in  a  very 
short  time.  With  all  this  staring  you  in  the  face 
what  is  the  use  lighting  any  longer?  Why  not  look 
into  this  and  see  for  yourselves?  Blowing  and  blart- 
ing  will  do  you  no  good. 

With  a  few  more  such  men  as  Dr.  Quigly  and  Bur- 
dick to  work  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  poor  suffer- 
ing horses'  condition  will  be  bettered  in  many  ways. 
All  it  wants  is  some  live  and  honest,  fearless  men  of 
brains  to  do  this.  When  it  gets  started  it  will  spread 
fast.  It  is  only  one  process  that  does  the  whole  busi- 
ness. It  is  not  such  a  wonderful  thing,  after  all,  when 
it  is  understood. 

The  next  dciy  after  Oliver  was  up  looking  at  Mr. 
Burdick's  stallion  I  went  to  Auburn.  I  have  traveled 
over  this  road  on  foot  many  times  on  this  horse  busi- 


312  THE   horse's  rescue. 

ncvss  in  one  year  and  a  half.  I  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Bur- 
dick  to  get  the  privilege  of  using  his  name  in  this 
scientific  work  on  the  horse.  He  was  gone  awav.  I 
waited  for  liim  to  return  home;  he  said  he  had  been 
up  to  look  at  his  stallions.  "  Mr.  Burdick,"  said  I,  "  I 
have  got  along  with  my  book  now  where  it  comes  to 
vou.     Can  I  use  your  name  in  this  science?" 

"  You  can  use  my  name  in  any  way  you  please  and 
I  will  add  a  little  myself;  you  can  say  ihe  work  done 
on  my  stallion  has  added  to  his  worth  five  hundred 
dollars.  I  would  not  have  him  put  back  where  he 
was  last  fall  for  that ;  and  that  is  not  all ;  my  brown 
horse  that  I  have  just  had  fixed  can  out-trot  his  mate, 
which  he  could  not  do  before  I  had  him  fixed;  he 
sailed  ont  at  once  ;  it  let  him  loose,  untied  him.  The 
mist  is  clearing  away." 

This  was  the  last  he  said  to  me.  I  walked  away. 
This  is  encouraging,  and  this  work  is  still  going 
on  and  spreading,  and  it  will  continue  to  do  so  for  this 
reason  :  it  is  right,  based  on  principles  that  will  stand, 
and  all  trash  and  rubbish  it  will  clear  away  and  shove 
from  their  base,  just  as  these  poor  horses  are. 

There  is  one  nure  mare  I  want  to  mention.  It  is 
the  Westlake  mare  of  Auburn  city.  It  is  nearly  nine 
years  since  I  changed  her  back  to  natural  and  put  her 
in  harmony  of  action.  She  never  changed  hands; 
he  owns  her  yet.  I  have  seen  her  nearly  every  year 
since  and  looked  her  over  as  she  was  passing  and  re 
passing.  She  was  on  her  base  and  limber,  looking 
fine.  She  was  a  good  animal  and  i-  yet.  When  I 
changed  her  back  she  was  badly  deformed  and  showed 
it.     Working-  on  this  mare  I  learned  a  lesson.     I  did 


THE   horse's   rescue.  313 

not  spread  her  forward  feet  quite  enough  to  let  her 
down  between  the  cup  at  the  top.  She  was  badly- 
contracted  ;  she  was  completely  raised  out  of  the  cup 
and  shutout  by  the  wall  closing  up  below.  By  driving, 
it  drove  the  sole  down,  not  being  room  at  the  top  of 
the  wall  for  the  bone  to  go  down.  She  got  pinched  or 
wedged  in  the  cup.  After  driving  awhile  I  saw  she 
was  not  going  well.  I  soon  saw  the  cause.  Her  feet 
began  to  bulge  out  at  the  top  and  both  sides  It  was 
too  late  then  to  help  that ;  it  made  her  sore  only  a  few 
days,  then  all  was  right;  if  the  feet  had  been  spread 
one  quarter  or  over  an  eighth  of  an  inch  more  she 
would  have  sailed  all  right  This  was  the  first  and 
last  time  I  ever  got  pinched  in  that  way.  I  explained 
the  whole  thing  to  Mr.  Westlake  and  have  talked  with 
him  since  ;  his  mare  was  cured  for  all  that ;  it  only  set 
her  back  a  little.  All  horses  that  I  worked  on  were  in 
Auburn  citv  at  that  time,  but  that  mare  I  have  lost 
track  of.  I  offer  fiftv  thousand  dollars  to  anv  man 
that  will  brinsf  me  a  man  that  never  made  a  mistake 
in  life.  I  want  to  see  him  ;  it  would  be  a  big  sight  to 
ma 

I  will  pass  on  now.  I  could  write  about  thousands 
of  horses  that  I  have  worked  on.  It's  of  no  kind  of 
use.  All  are  cured  by  the  principles  that  are  laid 
down  in  this  work.  That  is  what  I  claim ;  and  more, 
it  will  almost  raise  a  horse  that  is  r.early  dead,  and  this 
is  a  fact,  as  strange  as  it  may  appear  to  some.  This 
great  science  is  classed  with  the  highest ;  it  is  one  of  the 
great  sciences  of  the  sciences.  It  cannot  be  grasped 
at  once  by  men  of  small  caliber  of  brain,  but  they  can 


314  THE   horse's  rescue. 

learn    it   by    degrees,  as    all  other   great    things   are 
learned,    if    they    will   apply  themselves,  vhich  they 
will  have  to  do  or  suffer  loss.       And    Mr.   Kirby,  the 
well-known  inventor  of  the  Kirby  harvester,  has  been 
taking  lessons.     He  saw  this  work  done  and  measured 
the  feet  before  spreading,  and  stood   and  saw  the  feet 
spread,  then   measured  them  after  this  was  done  and 
watched  the  result.     He  wanted  to  know  for  himself, 
and  that  is  the  way.      I  never  had  any  trouble  from 
such  men  as   these,  and  this  kind  of  men  will  be  the 
men  to  help  introduce  this  science  or  it  never  can  be 
done.     My  long   experience   working   at   mechanical 
work  has  taus^ht  me  this — the    higher  must  teach  the 
lower;  the  lower  cannot  rise  all  at  once.     How  can 
they?       And    all  men  that   fight  this  work  with  all 
this  evidence  before  them,  coming  as  it  does  from  men 
well  advanced  and  developed  in  science,  men  of  char- 
acter, of  good  standing,  and  they  have  earned  it  and 
they  are  not  going  to  indorse  a  science  unless  it  is  all 
right  and  then  have  to  tight  against  such  men  and  evi- 
dence   as    this,     any   longer    will  only    expose  your 
io-norance.     Here  will  be  the  great  center  of  action  to 
set  it  sailing,  for  sail  it  will,  and  no  power  on  earth  can 
stop  it.     Now,  what  is  the  use  trying  to  throw  blocks 
under  the  wheels  of  progression  ?     They  always  have 
had  to  move  out  of  the  way  and  always  will.     There 
are   lots  more  of    things  to  learn   yet.      I  have  got 
another  bifrger  thinor  than  this  horse  science,  which  I 
have  been  working  on  about  twenty -five  years  to  per- 
fect.    I  vshall  if  I  live  bring  that  forward  when  I  get 
it  so  I  can  handle  it  as  well  as  I  can  this  horse  busi- 
ness.   On  that  I  challenge  all  the  wisdom,  knowledge, 


THE   horse's   rescue.  315 

and  brains  concentrated  on  the  globe  to  excel.  Mill- 
ions may  equal;  excel  they  cannot.  It  makes  the 
"horse  as  the  Creator  made  him,  and  that  is  as  far  as 
man  can  go  on  that  case.  The  created,  I  think,  will 
hardly  excel  the  Creator,  In  experimenting  and 
studying  this  horse  business  I  have  undermined  some 
foundations  that  have  been  reared  on  false  teachings, 
and  they  will  tip  over,  and  they  ought  to,  and  it  will 
be  a  godsend  to  the  suffering  mule  and  horse  when 
they  are  scattered  to  the  four  winds  or  buried  with  all 
other  false  teachings  of  the  dead  past.  This  is  what 
I  have  been  trying  to  do  for  many  years.  In  place  of 
this  entanglement  of  nonsense  I  will  leave  you  some 
principles  that  will  take  yon  safe  through  all  of  this 
trash  and  rubbish  and  let  the  light  of  day  in  on  you. 
This  foundation  that  I  have  built  in  this  work,  and 
the  superstructure  reared  thereon,  will  stand.  Ages 
and  ages  can  roll  on  eternally,  nnd  it  will  be  there.  It 
is  founded  on  truth  and  principlesof  science,  and  after 
I  am  dead  I  want  no  man  to  worship  me  or  erect  a 
monument  to  my  memorj^  All  I  ask  is:  Take  care 
of  vour  horse!  All  the  headstone  I  want  is  a  natu- 
ral  horse  and  carved  on  his  side  "  Gerard  Doan,  author 
of  '  The  Horse's  Rescue.'  " 


SI6  TKE    HOUSES   KESCUE. 


THE  HOESE'S  APPEAL  FOR  MERCY. 

Do  on  me  some  feeling,  judgment,  and  mercy  show, 

I  cannot  travel  with  these  long  levers  on  my  toes. 

Just  look  at  my  feet,  you  can  see  very  plam. 

Every  step  I  take  on  my  cords  there  is  an  awful  strain. 

To  ri^e  over  these  long  and  peaked  toes, 

It  me  all  out  of  action  and  balance  throws. 

And  that  is  not  all,  I  have  no  use  of  my  feet. 

All  contH'acted,  sore,  full  of  unnatural  heat, 

The  structure  of  mj^  feet  are  all  out  of  condition  to  run; 

To  travel  in  this  way,  and  not  hurt,  it  cannot  be  done. 

Look  at  my  heels,  all  pinched  up,  you  can  easily  see; 

They  are  not  as  my  creator  intended  them  to  be. 

I  am  worse  off  than  you  think  I  am.     I  know 

They  ache  and  hurt  me  so  I  can  hardly  go. 

I  wish  you  would  take  me  and  have  my  feet  spread ; 

I  cannot  stand  this  long,  I  shall  soon  be  dead. 

Iti  s  cruel  to  pound  me  around  in  this  way. 

When  all  of  my  trouble  can  be  leraoved  in  a  day. 

Unless  this  is  done,  I  never  can  any  better  be; 

I  am  growing  worse  every  day,  you  can  plainly  see. 

I  shall  soon  be  of  no  kind  of  use  to  you; 

You  will  only  have  me  to  feed;  no  work  can  I  do. 

"When  I  am  completely  thrown  back  off  my  base, 

What  condition  am  I  to  put  in  a  race? 

I  will  only  be  laughed  at;  they  will  of  me  make  fun; 

The  condition  I  am  now  in,  I  cannot  trot  or  run. 

To  whip  and  jerk  me,  it  will  only  make  matters  worse; 

To  get  there  in  this  condition  I  cannot  first. 

With  all  lengths  of  levers  on  the  ends  of  my  toes, 

If  you  hurry  me  in  this  condition,  out  of  balance  all  ^oea. 


THE   horse's   REKSL'E.  817 

When  this  takes  piace,  I  have  all  I  can  do  to  stand  on  my  feet; 

And  contracted  feet  is  the  cause  of  my  losing  the  heat. 

To  pound  me  around  on  this  hard  irack  in  this  way, 

I  am  always  ten  times  worse  for  it  the  next  day. 

If  you  could  onl}^  see  the  inside  of  my  poor  feet, 

You  could  soon  see  the  cause  of  my  losing  the  heat. 

They  may  look  to  )ou  all  right  on  tlie  outside, 

And  yet  for  all  that  good  horses  as  I  have  suffered  and  died 

From  this  cause  that  I  am  now  teUing  you  about; 

And  if  you  keep  on,  I  will  go  the  same  way,  no  doubt. 

I  cannot  kist  long  pounded  around  this  track  every  day, 

To  have  my  feet  contracted  and  bound  up  in  this  way. 

My  suffering  is  very  great;  the  cause  is  all  in  my  feet; 

They  pain  me  so  day  and  night  I  cannot  rest  or  sleep. 

Sore,  and  stiff,  and  sick,  and  lame  you  pound  me  through; 

1  assure  you  it  is  worse  than  death  ;  it  may  be  fun  for  you. 

If  you  would  cut  my  throat,  let  the  blood  out  of  my  •»  eiins, 

I  would  to  you  thankful  be  ;  it  would  end  all  my  pains. 

0  my  God  I  is  there  never  any  relief  or  help  to  come  ? 

Have  I  always  got  to  suffer  in  this  way— every  day  be  run? 

Creator  of  me  and  all  that  is  great,  wise,  and  good. 

Is  there  no  way  that  my  suffering  can  be  understood? 

0  my  God !  in  some  way  do  to  me  send  rehef  I 

1  appeal  to  you  now ;  to  my  groans  my  driver  seems  deaf ; 
For  there  must  be  a  great  first  cause  of  all  that  is  created, 
And  to  that,  hke  all  others,  I  must  be  related. 

I  well  know  on  me  in  creating  you  have  made  Ho  such  mistake ; 

That  I  cannot  eat  or  drink,  and  from  that  cause  no  comfort  take. 

I  know  myself  where  all  of  the  cause  is  well  enough, 

But  I  cannot  talk  and  tell,  and  I  assure  you  it  is  tough. 

It  is  not  caused  by  anything  that  I  have  drank  or  eat; 

It  is  nearly  all  caused  by  botch-work  done  on  my  feet. 

It  is  caused  sometimes  by  leaving  my  heels  too  low. 

That  throws  me  back  off  my  base  so  J  cann«t  go. 

If  you  leave  my  heels  too  high,  it  is  no  better,  you  can  see, 

That  will  throw  me  off  my  base,  cock  ankle,  and  tip  my  knee.  • 

If  you  dress  my  hoof,  and  get  it  all  right  to  a  fraction, 

To  look  at  may  yet  be  out  of  harmony  of  action. 

Imternallv  the  structure  may  badly  changed  be ; 


318  THE  horse's  rescue. 

Put  me  in  motion ;  if  you  have  got  eyes  you  can  see 

I  will  have  to  step  short  and  have  a  crippled,  hobbling  gait; 

When  my  feet  are  in  this  condition,  my  God  !  how  they  ache. 

That  causes  great  internal,  unnatural  fever  and  heat ; 

That  causes  my  ankles  to  swell;  it  lias  its  rise  from  my  feet. 

Tinker  and  toggle  me  up  the  very  best  way  you  can, 

Ko  relief  to  me  can  come  until  you  my  feet  expand, 

For  the  sole  is  raised  up;  all  is  out  of  harmony  of  action. 

I  cannot  move  well;   tliis  is  nearly  all  caused  by  contraction  ; 

There  is  other  causes  connected  with  this  corapHcated  matter, 

But,  with  all,  it  relieves  the  most  to  make  my  feet  flatter; 

That  lets  my  weight  go  back  on  my  base  a  great  degree, 

And  liberates  the  coffin-joint,  and  lets  all  go  free. 

Th?n  if  you  will  just  look  at  the  tops  of  my  double  heels  behind. 

And  you  find  them  even,  you  are  ah  right  so  far  you  find. 

Do  not  forget  I  have  four  feet  that  are  of  use  to  me ; 

They  are,  or  can  be,  all  affected  the  same,  you  can  see. 

If  the  heels  are  not  even  at  the  top,  they  are  not  right  you  will  find, 

Thai  turns  the  toe  in  or  out,  I  cannot  travel  in  a  straight  line . 

If  my  ankles  are  thrown  in  from  this  cause,  to  travel  it  would  be 

queer. 
And  not  sore  my  cord  badly,  and  not  cause  me  to  interfere. 
You  must  look  my  feet  aU  over  singly  in  order  to  see, 
They  may  all  be  nearly  right  but  one,  and  that  badly  be ; 
And  they  may  all  be  steering  in  opposite  directions,  so 
I  cannot  trot,  run,  walk,  it  sores  and  hurts  me,  you  ought  to  know. 
Do,  for  my  sake,  look  at  my  feet,  crooked,  many  ways  overrun, 
All  caused  by  shoeing  and  the  awful  botch  work  on  me  done. 
There  is  a  right  way  and  wrong  to  do  this,  you  ought  to  know ; 
It  must  be  done  so  all  will  work  in  harmon}^,  or  I  cannot  go. 
To  have  my  feet  in  pairs,  traveling  on  opposite  lines, 
My  weight  all  thrown  off  of  balance,  it  is  hard,  I  find. 
My  good  G-od,  creator  of  all  that  we  can  see  and  o{  me ; 
I  never  can  tell  all  of  my  suffering  and  how  to  get  free. 
You  have  power  to  all  I  see  and  behold  to  create ; 
And  now  is  there  not  some  way  better  care  of  me  to  take? 
This  coniracticm  throws  two-thirds  of  my  weight  on  my  legs  behind  ; 
And  this  is  not  all,  it  spavhis  me  and  strains  me  across  the  loin, 
And  ih&t  throws  all  internally  out  of  order,  too. 


thp:  horse's  rescue.  319 

When  this  takes  place  no  one  sepms  to  know  what  to  do ; 

Then  there  will  always  be  a  lot  of  quacks  gather  nronnd, 

To  kill   iiie  with  blisters,  and  cramming  me  with  trash  they  seem 

bound ; 
To  balance  me  up  by  allowing  my  heels  to  grow  and  not  my  toes ; 
That,  too.  is  no  better;  in  a  short  time  over  the  other  way  I  will  go. 
It  is  plain  enough,  all  might  sec,  it.'s  as  plain  as  a  be; 
Then,  with  all  tliis,  have  rnv  shoulders  blistered,  it's  hard  for  me. 
Then  to  be  all  out  of  harmony  in  many  degrees  and  ways ; 
With  all  this,  have  to  draw  loads,  great  mi:=chief  with  me  it  plays. 

0  my  God !  I  wish  I  never  had  created  been. 

To  live  a  long  life  of  suffering  in  this  condition  I  am  in. 

1  cannot  hardly  get  my  head  down  lo  drink  or  eat; 

I  am  thrown  in  such  shape  caused  by  ironing  my  feet; 

Neither  can  I  get  up  my  liead  any  better  than  down ; 

In  fact,  it  throws  me  in  such  shape  I  can't  turn  around. 

Clear  past  the  center  two-thirds  of  my  vreigiit  is  thrown  back; 

Sometimes  this  is  done  slow;  it  is  according  as  my  feet  contract ; 

It  all  depends  on  the  care  and  treatment  my  feet  has  had. 

I  am  in  all  stages  ;iud  degrees  of  suHering  ;  sometimes  very  bad  ; 

I  wish  vou  could  see  the  fearful  condition  it  throws  me  and  holds  me 


You  would  have  the  cause  removed,  and  more  mercy  on  me  show. 

Oh,  dear !   with  shoes  on  me.  and  on  me  two  sets  of  contracted  feet, 

Can't  you  see  whera  I  have  gnawed  them  ?     On  this  manure  heap, 

All  paralyzed,  unable  to  rise  or  stand  for  the  want  of  care, 

There  I  am  obliged  to  lie  month  after  month  and  breathe  foul  air, 

Although  I  am  down  now,  and  nnable  to  rise,  walk,  or  stand. 

With  all  this,  if  you  would  cut  my  feet  down  and  them  expand, 

I  would  soon  recover,  and  grow  strong,  healthy,  and  spry ; 

And  if  that  is  not  done,  for  there  is  no  other  v/ay,  I  must  die. 

This  is  the  last  stages,  and  there  are  thousands  like  me  all  over  the 

land. 
This  is  the  final  result,  paralyzed,  unable  longer  to  stand. 
When  T  get  this  way,  0  my  God!  look  inside  of  my  feet, 
They  have  become  inflamed;  now  someihirig  more  than  a  little  heat; 
All  life  and  action  completely  destroyed  for  want  of  circulation  : 
And  this,  too,  is  all  located  m  my  feet — ray  foundation. 
When  my  base  or  foundation  you  destroy  and  undermine  me, 


820  THE  horse's  rescue. 

I  am  not  of  mneli  use:  I  will  have  to  come  down  you  will  find. 
To  be  down  in  this  way,  sick,  fearful  pains  to  endure, 
And  breathe  this  pteneh;  no  bed,  only  stinking-  maniire. 
O  my  creato^r,  God!  this  stench  and  carrion  are  enough  to  kill  me; 
If  there  was  no  other  cause,  this  heat  is  taking  my  hair  o£E,  don't  you 
see  ? 

0  my  creator  and  father  God  J  this  I  do  not  comprehend, 
That  we  have  such  a  life  of  pain  and  suffering  to  spend. 
Sure  you  could  not,  creating  us,  made  such  a  mistake 
That  we  cannot  eat,  drink,  walk,  stand  ;  no  comfort  take. 
We  can  neither  go  up  hill  without  hurting ;  the  same  down. 

It  hurts  us  very  bad  to  rise  on  our  feet ;  the  same  to  turn  around 
It  hurts  me  so  it  causes  me  to  raise  my  hind  legs  high. 
And  I  cannot  help  it,  ray  forward  legs  I  can't  bend  if  I  try. 

1  am  all  pinched,  bound,  and  murdered  with  contraction, 

And  I  have  no  control  of  myself,  and  I  suffer;  I  have  no  action j 

I  eiumot  back  without  almost  killing  me  dead. 

And  it  hurts  me  the  same,  from  the  same  cause  to  go  ahead. 

Sometimes  I  am  divided  against  myself,  you  can  easy  see ; 

If  I  am  all  right  on  my  forward  feet,  divided  I  shall  be 

Unless  my  hind  feet  are  all  in  harmony  at  the  same  time. 

All  true  should  be  toes,  of  equal  length,  and  all  travel  on  a  straight 
line. 

How  can  I  travel  divided  against  myself,  all  out  of  harmony,  too? 

You  can  see,  reverse  it,  it  is  all  the  same,  no  good  can  it  do ; 

To  fix  me  all  right,  my  feet  at  the  same  time  must  be  in  harmony  of 
action. 

And  to  do  this  you  must  remove  all  leverage,  run-over  feet,  and  con- 
traction. 

That  will  let  my  weight  all  go  back  on  its  base  you  will  find ; 

That  will  equalize  my  weight,  balance  me  at  the  same  time: 

Poise  me  on  my  equilibrium  in  the  center ;  I  mean  to  be  understood. 

Unless  you  understand  this,  to  work  on  me  you  are  no  good ; 

You  will  be  throwing  me  off  my  base  in  many  different  ways. 

And  in  this  suffering  condition  I  shall  have  to  be  all  of  my  days. 

No  more  blisters,  seatons,  rowels,  burning,  liniment  do  I  want  arcund 
me, 

The  whole  trouble  is  removed  by  working  on  my  feet ;  you  ean  see 

My  suffering  is  great,  and  I  am  deformed  enough  already  now, 


THE   horse's   KESCUE.  321 

Without  burning  and  mutilating,  to  cure  me  3'ou  know  not  how. 
If  you  can  find  a  place  around  me  that  is  the  least  bit  sore, 
The  first  thing  will  be  to  go  at  that,  and  sometimes  make  more. 
Almost  any  fool  the  effect  can  nearly  always  find, 
Unless  he  is  a  perfect  blockhead  and  nearly  blind. 
If  you  can  find  all  of  the  effects ;  you  have  only  half,  you  can  see, 
Burning,  blistering,  mutilating  them  will  never  cure  me. 
The  suffering  from  this  treatment  has  been  hard  to  endure; 
Added  to  all  others,  the  cause  you  must  remove  in  order  to  cure, 

0  my  creator  God  I  how  I  have  had  to  be  tortured  and  suffer ; 
It  has  been  a  good  thing  for  us  all  that  we  were  not  tougher. 
How  is  such  treatment  as  that  going  to  put  me  on  my  base  ? 

If  you  will  and  do  it,  I  will  take  the  back  seat  and  give  you  the  race; 
You  never  have  cured  or  helped  ono  horse  treating  them  in  this  way 
Either  in  ancient  or  modern  times,  or  in  any  other  day. 
And  if  that  is  all  you  can  do  is  to  mutilate  the  effect, 

1  am  better  off  without  you,  if  my  feet  do  contract. 
I  can  get  around  a  little  if  I  am  stiff,  lame,  and  sore; 

When  you  get  at  me  I  am  always  a  wreck  six  months  or  more. 

To  work  on  you  have  no  theory,  principle,  plan,  or  foundation ; 

It  is  doctor  the  effect,  when  you  can't  find  it.  and  all  is  mutilation. 

You  have  been  all  over  me,  mutilating  in  many  different  ways, 

And  all  is  wrong;  not  once  have  you  seen  where  the  cause  all  lies 

All  you  have  done  has  been  very  great  damage  to  me ; 

Spreading  my  feat  at  the  top  is  all  wrong,  you  can  see. 

I  have  been  worked  on  on  the  great  Dunbar  plan, 

That  was  recommended  by  that  great  joining  of  fallible  being- — man. 

A  great  fulcrum  of  principles  and  science  must  then  be  made. 

"When  to  him  for  nothing  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  was  paid, 

For  there  is  not  one  thing  laid  down  in  that  work  to  me  of  use ; 

It  is  all  torture  to  me;  no  help;  only  mutilation  and  abuse. 

Spreading  my  feet  at  the  too,  that  is  wrong,  you  ought  to  know. 

That  will  throw  my  heels  together;  in  doing  so 

That  will  cause  the  sole  to  raise ;    that  throws  me  back  still  more 

Off  of  my  base  again.     My  cords,  0  my  God!  how  sore. 

And  this  is  done  so  as  to  give  the  coffin-joint  a  little  more  play. 

Then  it  must  be  contracted  again  for  fe.nr    it  should  get    too   much 

and  run  away. 
And  the  toe  must  bo  kept  as  sho:-t  as  it  can  possibly  be. 


322  THE  horse's  rescue. 

To  keep  and  prevent  the  cofQn-joint  from  separation,  you  see, 
There  is  no  use  saying  any  more ;  it  is  like  this  all  the  way  through. 
To  spend  my  time  with  this  baby  trash  I  can't,  I  have  other  work 

to  do. 
Poor,  delormed,  and  suffering,  tortured  horse  of  hundreds  of  years, 
For  many  long  years  I  have  heard  your  cries  and  shed  tears ; 
And  now  I  have  got  tliis  work  nearly  completed  and  done, 
And  when  it  is  finished,  to  your  rescue  I  shall  come. 
No  man  on  this  green  earth  can  intimidate  me  so. 
That  for  your  relief  T  dare  not  the  same  old  bugle  blow; 
For  I  shall  bo  in  the  center  and  in  the  hottest  of  the  fight, 
No  matter  where  or  when  nor  what  time,  day  or  night. 
No  quarters  will  I  give    until    I    do   away  with   some    of    the  poor 

horses'  abuse. 
Tliere  never  was  an  effect  without  cause,  of  that  you  may  be  surcj 
And  the  cause  is  removed  with  this  science  and  that  in  the  cure. 
And  now  I  am  going  to  tell  you  what  this  science  will  do: 
It  will  cure  nearly  all  cripples,  I  will  except  only  a  few. 
Of  course  there  are  cripples  that  the  cause  is  not  in  their  feet; 
They  can  be  crippled  in   many  ways;    I  will  assure   you    it   is    not 

what  they  eat. 
You  may  ask.  What   is  the  reason    this  has    not   been  done    years 

ago? 
I  cannot  tell  you,  sir,  for  the  reason  I  do  not  know. 
But  there  is  one  thing  that  I  do  know,  of  that  I  am  very  sure. 
It  cost  me  money  and  forty-one  years'  labor    that  was  liard  to  en- 
dure. 
Of  that  I  have  only  given  you  a  sketch,  a  glance,  a  bird's-eye  view- 
Just  enough  to  lay  down  principles  to  tell  you  this  work  how  to  do, 
For  in  that  way  I  do  not  want  my  time  to  spend. 
I  am  ffettino-  old  now.   of  course  my  time  here  must  suou  end. 
To  perfect  a  great  work  experience  has   taught  me   it  takes  a  long 

tin;ie. 
And  after  it  is  done,  to  introduce  it,  it  is  the  same  I  find. 
This  is  the  reason  I  do  not  want  my  time  to  fool  away. 
For  I  well  know  this  great  science  cannot  be  introduced  in  a  day. 
This  science  is  far  in  advance  of  the  age,  that  I  well  know. 
Of  course  I  understand  that  it  must  spread  very  slow; 
Ignorance  is  the  great  power ;  against  that  it  will  have  to  contend ; 


THE  horse's  rescue.  S2S 

Nobody  knows  how  long  or  when  it  ^vill  end. 

It  may  be  hundreds  of  years  before  it  is  well  understood, 

Or  it  may  go  very  fast;  if  it  does  it  will  do  a  power  of  good. 

I  do  not  want  any  man   to  think,  afier   they  have    read    this  work 

through. 
To  make  money  out  of  this  work  is  all  I  want  to  do. 
Of  course  for  this  work  I  shall  have  to  charge  now  a  little  fe^ 
Or  I  never  can  introduce  this  science,  you  can  easy  see. 
The  last  dollar  is  going  now  in  this  work  that  I  have  got, 
Excepting  a  few  blacksmith  tools  and  my  little  red  shop. 
Before  I  quit  there  is  a  little  more  to  you  I  want  to  say, 
The  principles  in  tliis  work  are  right ;  there  is  no  other  way ; 
And  if  they  are  not  adhered  to,  you  had  better  beware, 
Your  horses  will  all  be  better  off  with  their  feet  bare. 
Now  I  will  in  this  work  bid  you  all  adieu  ; 
I  do  not  want  you  to  think  I  have  given  up  and  got  through ; 
I  have  not,  I  am  going  to  follow  this  work  around, 
And  teach  and  introduce  this  science  I  am  bound. 

Adieu,  your  humble  servant, 

Gerard  Doan. 


324 


THB   HORSE  3   RESCUE. 


]^o.  1. 


Cut  Xo.  1  represents  the  natural  Iiorse  'before  lie  lias  been  changed 
from  natural  bj  having  Iiis  feet  ironed.  There  are  other  causes, 
which  are  often  the  case.  The  eauses  tliat  change  the  hc-rse  froi^n 
natural  are  very  slight  compared  with  the  inanj  and  great  changes 
and  many  degrees  of  change  about  which  I  Imve  written^  caused  by 
ironing  their  feet.  I  hnve  told  you  in  tliis  work  tliat  the  horse  ia  a 
machine,  and  must  be  in  harmony  of  action  or  he  will  run  badly. 
These  cuts  are  to  show  yon  scientifically,  to  give  you  an  idea,  or  to  try 
to^  of  the  suffering  condition  your  horses  are  thrown  in.  Cut  No.  1 
shows  the  horse  natural,  inside  of  his  circle,  all  in  hannony  of  action 
— no  leverage,  no  runover  feet,  no  contraction.  The  center  perpen- 
dicular line,  A,  horizontal  center  line,  B ;  it  crosses  at  A  in  the  center 
of  the  horse.  If  the  horse  is  not  drawn  out  of  shape  or  off  }iis  base^ 
he  is  balanced  in  the  center.  He  can  place  his  feet  at  fulcrum,  E, 
where  the  two  circles.  F  F,  cross  lines ;  place  tlie  hind  foot  to  D.  lii* 


THE  horse's  rescue.  325 

forming  fulcrum  with  E ;  place  the  forward  foot  to  D  line.     When  this 
is  done,  you  can  see  there  is  another  center  and  fulcrum  of  levers 
formed  if  the  horse  is  as  he  should  be.     Wlien  his  feet  ure  all  placed 
in  the  center  at  fulcrum,  E,  he  can  rotate  both  ways  from  points  B  B 
to  K,  or  he  can  rear  up  until  point  B  of  horizontal  line  in  front  comes 
to  A,  perpendicular  Ime.     If  he  is  natural,  he  can  kick  up  in  the  same 
way.     He  can  rotate  both  ways,  horizontal  line  B  B  to  A  and  K,  with- 
out hurting  him  in  any  way,  if  he  is  natural  and  inside  of   his  circle. 
"When  the  horse  is  going  through  this  exercise,  changing  ends,  every 
time  he  changes  he  will  place  both  his  hind  feet  when  he  comes  down 
at  fulcrum,  E ;    his  forward  feet  the  same.     If  you   will  watch  liim, 
you  can  see  this.     The  horse  has  four  dnve-wheels.     These  cuts  only 
show  one  side.     The  drive-wheels  are  all  of  one  size  if  the  horse  is 
natural ;  I  mean  he  rolls  four  of  a  size,  and  the  size  is  according  to  his 
own  length  and  size ;    and  the  size  of  wheel  he  rolls  is  governed  by 
the  harmony  of  action  he  is  in  or  out.     This  cut  shows  him  all  in 
harmony  of  action.     See  how  accurate  all  works  out.     The  two  per- 
pendicular, C  C,  lines  crossing  horizontal,  B  B,  line  to  T  T,  forming  two 
fulcrum  of  levers,  or  centers.     Here  is  where  the  horse  gets  his  pro. 
pehing  power  and  balance  of  leverage  that  enable  him  to  draw  heavy 
loads  up  heavy  hils.     Throw  him  off  his  base,  or  out  of  his  circle, 
and  he  loses  his  power  according  to  the  degree.     The  great  circle,  G» 
will  show  you  the  lever  power  the  horse  has  if  he  is  in  his  circle  and 
natural.     From  B  to  B  and  from  A  to  K  he  has  that  length  of  lever 
power,  turn  him  any  w^ay  you  may  on  this  globe.     The  line  H  H,  I 
drew  tc  show  you  a  rest  for  the  drive- wheels.     It  is  made  on  a  circle 
to  represent  the  globe  or  earth — to  convey  principles  that  are  not  seen 
and  yet  exist.     The  lower  line,  I  I,  is  the  real  line  to  show  the  earth 
and  the  leverage  ppwer  the  horse  has,  and  lines  L  L  are  pliced  there 
to  show  another  center  or  fulcrum  of  levers.     No  matter  w!  at  part  of 
the  globe  the  horse  is  on,  he  is  always  on  the  summit.     Ii  he  stands 
up,  his  feet  and  legs  point  to  the  center  of  the  earth ;  the  .-^;ime  witli 
man.     The  horse  is  quite  a  machine ;    he  has  a  gearing  nir. Ming  hori- 
zontal; his  feet  are  a  circle  of  leverages,  all  acting  from  :i  center  at 
every  step  the  horse  takes,  if  they  are  not  fixed  so  they  cannot.     He 
has  a  very  complicated  perpendicular  circular  gearing,  which  I  have 
not  put  all  on  in  full,  it  not  being  necessary  to  convey  what  I  wish  to. 
I  thought  it  would  complicate  it  too  much.     It  will  bo  easier  to  \inder- 
stand  and  explain  all  the  better  as  it  is.     He  has  too,  v.ithal,  a  folding 
crank    motion,  which    I   will   explain.     That   crank   can   be   affected 


826  THE    horse's    RESCUE. 

badly  and  be  made  to  vary  in  length  by  botch-work  done  on  the  feet 
In  order  to  show  the  principles  the  horse  moves  on  I  have  liaod  the 
drive-wheels  something  like  spokes  in  a  wagon  wheel;  put  the  horso 
in  motion,  each  spoke  as  the  wheel  rolls  will  take  its  place  at  the  point 
T  T ;  all  become  in  their  turn  perpendicular  lines,  C  C ;  tlie  horso 
clianges  when  in  motion,  feet  at  the  point  T  T  at  the  same  time,  if  he 
is  all  in  harmony  both  forward  and  behind.  When  he  is  trotting  fast 
if  you  see  when  he  changes  if  He  is  all  right,  jon  will  have  to  see 
quick  or  you  will  not  see  when  he  does  change.  I  do  net  pretend  he 
spaces  off  as  he  rolls  along  his  strides,  or  steps  regular  as  they  are 
spaced  in  this  cut.  1  have  marked  some  degrees  on  the  forward  drive- 
wheel  to  show  something  of  the  action  of  the  horse;  these  degrees  I 
did  not  put  on  the  hind  drive- wheel.  The  principle  is  the  same  on  all 
and  on  all  horses,  both  before  and  behind  ;  and  after  you  have  experi- 
mented on  horses  forty-one  years,  I  am  right,  j'ou  will  find.  The 
horse  when  natural  can  place  his  forward  foot  to  No.  12,  and  even 
higher,  the  other  foot  remaining  on  the  ground;  he  can  do  tlie  same 
with  his  hind  feet;  he  can  place  his  hind  feet  where  F  F  circles  cross 
lines  and  form  fulcrum  at  the  top.  I  have  marked  off  degrees,  and 
numbered  them  from  1  up  to  12.  They  are  not  regularly  spaced  off. 
These  lines  are  to  show  the  irregular  change  and  degrees  of  change  ou 
the  same  horse.  Do  not  forget  it  is  the  same  on  the  horse's  hind  feet. 
This  will  be  more  fully  explained  in  other  cuts.  You  can  see  I  have 
struck  circles  from  the  two  centers  of  drive-wheels  at  the  gambrel  and 
at  the  knee,  M  M.  Look,  then  you  can  see  at  the  fetlock  there  are 
circles  from  the  gambrel  and  knee,  N  N.  Look  ;  these  two  you  can 
see.  From  the  fetlock  there  is  another  circle  from  0  0;  and  if  you 
destroy  the  structure  in  my  foot,  or  feet,  you  will  find  I  cannot  go. 
When  the  horse  is  put  in  motion  he  changes  at  point  T  T,  and  leg 
folds  toward  the  center  of  drive-wheel  at  the  knee  and  fetlock  and 
heel.  They  fold  the  same  on  the  hind  drive-wheel,  and  these  folding 
cranks  all  fold  toward  the  great  center.  A,  and  he  gets  the  balance  of 
lever  power  in  this  way.  When  he  reaches  out  his  feet  to  put  himself 
in  motion  one  half  of  his  legs  folds  toward  three  centers,  the  other 
half  unfolds;  he  gets  the  balance  of  power.  In  this  way  the  cranks 
fold  and  unfold,  striking  half  circles  rotatory  motion.  The  principles 
are  there  just  as  much  as  they  would  be  if  this  machine  was  made 
with  cog-gearing.  He  has  got  a  power  ou  those  drive-wheels. 
When  he  is  even  with  himself  and  in  his  circle,  all  natural  as  his  crea- 
tor made  liim,  he  can  straighten  out  his  legs  from  A  to  K,  and  whirl 


THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 


around  and  around  very  easy.     You  can  seo   all  working  in  harmony 
from  the  great  center. 

No.  2. 


Cut  No.  2  shows  the  horse  off  his  base,  both  forward  and  behind : 
it  shows  him  out  of  his  circle ;  it  shows  two  sets  of  circles  and  per- 
pendicular lines.  This  cut  will  show  you  something  of  the  first 
stages  of  the  horse's  change  from  natural.  Do  not  forget  there  arc  all 
degrees  of  this  change,  and  his  suffering  commences  at  the  first 
change.  As  this  horse  now  is,  he  is  in  a  bad  fix.  Now  I  will  ask 
some  wise  man  to  tell  me  how  this  horse  can  be  got  out  of  his  trouble, 
burning,  blistering,  rowels,  and  all  kinds  of  mutilating.  You  may 
fasten  his  feet  where  they  now  are,  hitch  tackles  to  his  neck,  and 
draw  him  in  his  circle,  or  roll  him  in,  or  pry  him  in,  or  blister  him,  or 
burn  him  in,  he  will  not  stay ;  and  you  cannot  get  him  in  his  circle 
and  put  him  in  harmony  m  any  such  way.  I  put  him  in  his  circle  with 
a  lever,  and  it  is  all  lever  principle  I  work  on  to  do  it.  It  is  all  done 
working  on  the  feet.     There  is  the  cause.      I  have  explained   that 


328  THE   horse's   rescue. 

about  as  well  as  I  can.  The  light  perpendicular  lines,  A  and  C  C,  are 
the  natural  lines ;  the  space  between  A  and  C,  center  perpendicular 
lines.  The  horse  is  out  of  his  circle  and  off  his  base  that  much.  You 
will  find  that  throws  all  out  of  harmony  of  action ;  the  same  degree 
the  horse  is  all  out  of  his  balance.  Look  ;  there  are  two  sets  of  cir- 
cles and  lines,  you  can  see.  Tliis  only  shows  in  this  small  cut  a  small 
degree.  The  horse  is  off  his  base  or  behind  himself.  Take  a  full- 
sized  horse  and  hne  him  as  this  cut  is  lined  ;  you  can  find  lots  of  horses 
off  their  base  eighteen  inches,  and  some  more.  I  have  marked  and 
figured  a  few  degrees.  The  horse  in  this  condition  cannot  step  far,  he 
has  not  got  much  action.  He  has  lost  his  lever  power,  caused  by  con- 
traction ;  he  is  sick ;  all  is  out  of  mash.  The  machine  will  not  run 
much,  and  heats  badly  when  put  in  motion.  He  cannot  rotate  from 
B  B  to  A ;  he  cannot  rear  up  or  kick  up  either  way ;  neither  can  he 
any  better  turn  around.  It  all  works  the  same  when  he  gets  up  or 
lies  down.  Roll  him  back  until  A  line  comes  to  P,  then  there  will  be 
only  one  set  of  circles  and  lines,  you  can  see.  If  it  is  done  right  a 
will  in  harmoy  of  action  be.  I  have  left  this  cut  as  little  complicated 
as  I  could  and  convey  what  I  wanted  to.  If  I  had  laid  out  two  seta 
of  gearing,  and  put  all  in  these  cuts  which  I  could,  it  would  about 
spoilt  them  to  convey  tlie  principles  that  I  well  understand  to  others. 
Look  where  fulcrum  E  is ;  it  should  be  where  the  forward  circles  cross 
lines  on  heavy  perpendicular,  P,  line,  then  A  would  take  the  place  of 
S  and  in  the  center  be;  and  T  T  would  move  forward  with  C  C. 
There  are  six  centers  now.  If  that  was  done  there  would  be  only 
three.  Take  hold  of  circle  at  the  top  at  point  and  line  A,  move  it  for- 
ward ;  the  circle  wouW  at  that  point  travel  a  large  degree,  while  it 
would  hardly  move  at  R  and  A.  That  you  could  see  all  would  come 
in  one  line,  then  all  in  harmony  would  be.  This  poor  horse's  body 
must  all  move  forward  and  his  feet  remain  where  they  are.  This  may 
look  like  a  hard  job  to  do  without  medicine  of  any  kind,  and  yet  it  can 
be  done,  and  it  is  a  very  simple  job  to  do  when  once  understood.  As  the 
horse's  body  moves  forward,  no  matter  what  degree,  if  it  is  done 
right,  his  back  will  straighten  across  the  loin,  and  his  head  will  rise  a3 
bis  body  moves  forward,  no  matter  what  degree,  until  all  is  in 
harmony. 


THE    HORSE  8   RERCUE. 


829 


No.  3. 


Thi3  cut  No.  3,  shows  the  horse  in  his  circle  and  balanced  in  the 
center,  and  vet  he  is  badly  out  of  harmony  of  action,  caused  by  im- 
proper care  of  his  feet  and  contraction.  This  is  what  I  call  balancing 
the  horse  between  runover  feet,  contraction,  and  leverage.  This  is 
what  I  call  a  bad  job.  It  has  balanced  him  over  forward,  tipped  his 
ankles  forward,  and  his  kneej  that  is  caused  by  leaving  the  heel  too 
high,  or  toe  too  low,  or  both.  Sometimes  the  fault  is  all  in  the  slioe 
by  dressing  the  foot ;  it  can  be  done  in  that  way,  and  often  is,  and  in 
many  and  many  degrees  of  this  and  on  the  same  hor.se.  This  horse 
is  not  so  liable  to  fall  over  backwards  as  the  horse  shown  in  cut  Ko.  2, 
but  he  is  liable  to  lose  the  use  of  his  feet  and  legs,  and  has,  nearly. 
He  has  but  very  little  action,  and  is  liable  to  fall  at  every  step  if  lie  is 
hurried.  His  feet  are  bad,  both  internally  and  externally.  He  is  a 
great  sufferer,  and  the  cause  is  located  in  his  feet.  Reader,  you  may 
think  this  picture  overdrawn,  some  of  you,  but  I  assure  you  it  is  not. 


330  THE   horse's   rescue. 

I  can  produce  thousands  of  horses  that  are  worse  off  than  this  horse 
is  shov7n  to  be.  This  horse  has  more  ailments  than  are  shown  in  cnt 
No.  2.  He  has  been  kept  in  his  circle,  or,  other  words,  tried  to  be 
kept  on  his  base  and  balance  and  failed,  as  all  do  that  try  to  do  it  in 
this  way.  Cut  No.  2  shows  the  horse  throv/n  off  his  base  by  the  soles 
of  his  feet  rising  up.  Do  not  forget  it  can  be  done  man}^  other  ways, 
about  which  I  have  written,  if  the  sole  liad  been  lowered  on  the 
principles  laid  down  in  this  work,  he  or  his  body  would  have  gone 
back  on  his  base.  This  horse  (cut  No.  3)  has  had  his  feet  dressed  in 
such  a  way  it  has  added  more  to  his  trouble,  and  the  first  cause  still 
remains,  and  has  grown  worse.  It  is  of  longer  standing.  The  coffin- 
joints  are  badly  affected,  and  all  is  bad  internally.  He  is  sick  all  over, 
and  not  fit  to  work.  Now,  I  want  some  man  to  tell  me,  if  he  can,  how 
he  is  going  to  get  his  poor  horse  out  of  this  troul>le  with  medicine  of 
any  kind,  or  any  treatment  excepting  the  principles  laid  down  in  this 
work.  I  mean  the  ailments  the  horse  has  at  the  present  day  that  I 
treat  and  write  about.  I  well  know  this  is  the  right  and  only  way  out 
of  this  trouble,  and  the  horse  should  never  be  in  it.  But  this  is  the 
way  it  is ;  how  long  it  will  be  so  I  know  not. 

The  horse  shown  in  cut  No.  2  thrown  off  his  base  I  left  in  tlie  fore- 
part of  this  work;  at  that  time  I  could  do  no  better.     Such   as  he  go 
over  backwards  often.     And  this  horse  (cut  No.  3)  I  left  in  this  work 
after  balancing  him  as  well  as  I  could.     Him  I  came  around  to  see.     I 
found  him  cocked  on  his  ankles  and  tipped  on  his  knees.     I  have  no 
recollection  of  ever  serving  a  horse  in  this  way  in  my  life ;  bui  I  have 
straightened  thousands  of  them,  and  shod  them  to  prevent  them  from 
balancing  over  in  the  way  this  is  shown  in  this  cut.     Some  horses  can 
stand  and  work  many  years  in  this  condition.     They  suffer  greatly; 
they  are  weak ;  they  cannot  draw  but  a  small  load  compared  with  a 
horse  that  is  all  sound  and  natural.     I  have  marked  a  few  lines  or  de- 
grees pointing  toward  the  center  of  the  forward  drive-wheel.     His 
steps  are  short;  he  does  not  get  much  balance  of  power  on  leverages; 
the  folding  cranks  do  not  work  ;  he  is  stiff;   no  knee  action  ;  no  action 
in    any    way ;  he    stubbs   and  pegs ;  blunders    along ;    swaying  right 
and  left.     He  has  all  he  can  do  to  stand  on  his  feet.     He  can  stand 
.hitched  to  a  load  or  by  the  side  of  another  sound  horse  better  than  in 
any  other  way.     This  horse  is  harder  to  cure  than  the  one  shown  in 
cut  No.  2,  and  yet  it  can  be  done.     In  the  condition  this  horse  is  now 
in  he  has  but  very  little  action ;  you  place  his  forward  feet  to  line  D, 
forming  fulcrum  at  E,     How  long  do  you  think  he  could  stand  cocked 


THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 


331 


on  his  ankles  and  tipped  on  his  knees  ?  Place  his  hind  feet  rit  the 
same  fulcrum  E.  In  the  condition  he  is  now  in  he  would  fall  very 
quickl3%  you  would  see.  If  he  was  put  in  his  circle  by  working  on 
the  right  principle  on  his  feet  he  could  rotate  both  ways  until  H  H 

No.   4. 


line  and  B  B  would  meet,  and  he  could  rotate  from  A  to  K  just  in 
the  same  way,  and  that  would  be,  of  course,  to  line  I.  Tho  condition 
he  now  is  in  he  cannot  do  it  if  he  should  try,  although  A  in  the 
center  seems  to  be,  and  so  is  the  perpendicular  lines  C  C,  and  the  feet 
seem  to  be  in  about  their  proper  place  at  T  T:  but  it  is  all  done 
■wrong ;  he  cannot  move  well   botclied  in  this  way,  for  this  reason, 


332  THE  horse's  rescue. 

it  is  not  done  in  the  right  way.  Compare  this  horse  with  the  one  in 
cut  No.  1,  and  7011  can  easj^  see  why  his  machinery  he  cannot  run. 
And  after  working  on  the  horse  forty-one  years  I  found  out  how  all 
this  mischief  was  done  after  I  got  control  and  master  of  the  horse's 
feet.  If  I  do  say  it,  balancing  np  horses  I  was  and  now  am  hard  to 
beat.  The  opposition  I  meet  with  I  do  not  mind.  I  can  balance 
these  horses  and  put  them  in  harmony  of  action  very  nicely  botli 
before  and  behind. 

Cut  No.  4,  or  plate  of  cuts,  is  to  show  the  base,  or  foundation,  of 
the  horse.  This  is  to  be  h)oked  at  as  though  the  horse  had  walked 
off  and  left  the  bottom  of  his  feet  with  shoes  on,  the  sole  and  frog 
all  there.  The  object  of  this  is  to  more  clearly  show  and  convey  the 
condition — the  foundation — of  the  most  of  horses  are  in,  caused  by 
unequal  weight  on  the  double  heel,  and  showing  what  shape  they 
will  assume,  caused  by  that  and  not  bemg  properly  dressed  and  cared 
for.  You  can  see  there  is  not  a  true  foot  there ;  they  are  all  imper- 
fect and  untrue  in  some  way,  and  in  many  and  different,  no  two 
alike.  The  two  feet  that  the  lines  start  from  at  the  toe  are  to  repre- 
sent the  hind  feet.  The  drive-wheels  on  the  horse's  hind  feet  are 
intended  to  run  on  the  outside  of  the  forward  wheels  if  he  is  natural, 
and  nature  has  made  him  so.  If  nature  has  a  chance  they  will  run 
in  that  way.  If  his  feet  are  run  over  it  will  change  these  lines  from 
a  straight  line  in  degrees  according  to  how  much  his  feet  are  run  over. 
The  top  of  heel  is  the  place  to  look.  There  will  be  all  degrees  on  the 
same  horse  from  the  same  cause;  the  weight  v*'ill  turn  the  toe  in  or 
out,  the  same  on  all  the  feet.  And  this  is  a  very  important  point  to 
look  to  if  you  want  your  horse  to  move  well.  Equalizing  the  weiglit 
on  the  feet  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  to  be  looked  to  in 
dressing  and  ironing  a  horse's  feet.  If  it  is  not  done  properly  it  will 
tarn  the  toe  one  way  or  the  other.  In  driving  twenty  miles,  and  some 
feet  in  less,  it  throws  the  ankle  in  or  out.  If  it  should  throw  the 
ankles  out.  the  toe  would  go  in.  If  both  feet  should  go  in  that  way 
(I  mean  a  pair),  they  would  cross  lines,  as  shown  in  this  plate,  and 
there  are  all  degrees  of  that.  Sometimes,  when  not  very  bad  in  that 
wav,  these  lines  would  cross  some  rods  ahead  of  the  horse.  Wheii ' 
the  horse  is  in  this  way  he  will  grab  his  shoes  and  heels  and  con- 
stantly be  running  over  himself.  Sometimes  he  is  run  over  in  pair.'*, 
both  forward  feet  one  way  and  both  hind  feet  the  opposite.  When  he 
is  in  that  way  there  is  danger  of  his  falling  if  he  is  hurried,  and  liable 
to  if  not.     The  fact  is  his  feet  are  all  turned  one  way  or  the  other. 


THE    HORSK'S    RESCr.K.  333 

If  he  is  nin  in  on  his  feet  he  wit  knocK  his  ankles  until  he  is  straight- 
ened.    This  is  not  seen  by  many.     It  racks  the  horse's  ankles  bad. 

There  is  another  point  to  be  looked  to  where  this  nin-over-feet  busi- 
ness exists.  Stand  behind  your  horse  and  see  if  his  legs  are  on  a 
perpendicular  Hne;  that  is,  see  if  the  hind  drive-wheels  do  not  stand 
under  too  much.;  that>  is,  his  feet  huddled  together  In  case  they 
should  by  being  runover,  or  from  want  of  proper  work  done  on  his 
feet,  the  effect  would  be  bad  in  many  ways.  Look  up  to  the  center  of 
the  drive-wheel ;  there  is  a  fulcrum  of  levers  up  there.  If  his  leg 
stood  under  from  a  perpendicular  line  his  weight  would  act  at  that 
center  or  fulcrum  of  levers.  These  levers  act  both  ways.  They  are 
all  right  when  they  all  act  together,  as  nature  intended  they  should. 
When  thrown  out  of  harmony  they  work  against  the  horse  and  his 
owner  badly.  These  principles  work  the  same  on  the  forward  part  of 
the  horsa.  Sometimes  one  wheel  is  badly  out  of  cfrder,  sometimes 
all ;  sometimes  two ;  sometimes  three.  Go  and  look  your  horse  all 
over,  put  him  in  motion,  and  if  you  have  got  an  eye  for  a  horse  you 

can  see. 

No.  5. 


Cut  No.  5  shows  the  foot  natural;  that  is,  the  covering  of  the 
sensitive  part.  It  shows  the  surface  of  the  sole  and  frog  internally : 
the  heels  are  low  and  wide  apart ;  the  foot  nearly  round  in  shape ; 
the  sole  nearly  flat  down ;  the  double  heels  and  frog  all  rest  on  the 
ground,  or  floor  equal,  and  this  is  the  way  it  always  should  be. 

No.  6. 


834  THE  horse's  rescue. 

Cut  No.  6  shows  the  foot  badly  changed  from  natural,  it  is  badly 
contracted.  You  can  see  the  heels  are  closed  together.  In  doing 
this  it  raises  the  sole  up.  The  mischief  it  does  I  have  written  about. 
To  cure  these  horses  my  work  treats  on.  I  expand  the  foot,  let  the 
sole  down,  and  make  cut  No.  6  have  the  appearance  of  cut  No.  5.  It 
does  not  tear  the  foot  apart,  as  many  would  suppose ;  it  simply  lets 
the  sole  down  to  its  natural  and  proper  place,  as  it  originally  was.  In 
doing  this  every  degree,  no  rnatter  how  small  you  change  or  expand 
the  foot,  the  circle  of  the  foot  grows  larger.  There  are  three  ways  to 
do  this :  The  first  is  to  pull  the  shoes  off,  dress  the  feet,  so  as  to  let 
the  horse's  body  go  back  on  the  base  if  Le  is  off,  so  the  weight  will  be 
in  center  of  feet;  dress  the  feet,  all  slanting  toward  the  point  of  frog; 
keep  the  frog  cut  away,  so  it  will  not  touch  the  ground;  drive  with 
no  shoes.  Thp  second  is  in  expanding  with  shoes,  and  the  principles 
are  all  laid  down.  The  third  is  in  expanding  with  shoe.  The  last 
does  the  wcrk  in  a  few  days.  The  other  two  processes  are  slow. 
They  cannot  all  be  cured  in  that  way.  The  second  process  is  in 
expanding  the  foot  by  the  horse's  weight  with  shoes ;  and  the  last  is 
by  spreading,  as  shown  in  cuts  No.  7  and  8. 

No.   7. 


Cut  No,  7  shows  the  arch-shape  the  bottom  of  the  foot  will  assume 
when  contraction  takes  place.  This  little  simple  skeleton-cut  is  to 
show  you  the  whole  business  of  expansion  and  contraction.  The 
straight  line,  B  B,  is  to  represent  the  ground.  Arched  line,  A,  and 
C  C,  shows  the  sole  of,  or  bottom  of,  the  foot  raised  up.  A  is  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  center  of  the  foot  at  point  of  frog,  but  it  is  not,  and 
there  are  few  that  are  perfectly  true.  F  is  to  show  the  frog  under  A. 
Now  I  want  to  expand  the  foot  and  settle  the  frog  down  to  straight 
line,  B  B.  Suppose  I  put  Vv^eight  (no  matter  what  kind)  on  this 
arched  line,  A,  and  the  arched  line  above  was  not  made  fast  at 
points,  B  B,  where  arch-line,  A,  forms  fulcrum,  arch-line,  A,  would 
be  likely  to  settle ;  and  if  it  did  it  would  spread  the  foot  and  con- 
tinue to  do  so  until    the   frog  came  to  a  rest  on  the   ground,      la 


THE    HORSES    RESCUE. 


835 


case  the   foot  had  shoes   on    that   raised   the   frog  up  it  would  be 

hkely  to  dish  tbc  wrong  war. 

In  shoeing  to  expand  the  foot  or  to  expand  it  in  any  other  way, 

it  should  be  prepared  in  the  same  way  as  shovvi:i  in  this  cut — work 

from  the  center.     At  point,  C  C,  an  arched  line,  A,  is  to  show  how 

the  foot  should  be  dressed  when  shoeing  to  let  the  sole  come  down 

to  flat  rest  on  shoe.      When  the    frog  came  to  rest   on  the  ground 

all  would  be  right.     Putting  on  a  spreading  shoe,  the  foot  must  be 

prepared  the  same. 

No.  S. 


Cut  No.  8  shows  a  very  good  shoe  for  expanding  a  foot  and 
holding  it.  This  is  the  best  w&y  to  work  on  contracted  feet.  I 
can  put  them  where  I  want  them  and  hold  them  until  they  settle 
and  grow.  This  shoe  is  concave,  clear  out  to  the  edge,  so  as  to 
let  the  sole  down,  except  a  little  flat  rest  at  the  heels.  This  shoe 
is  only  for  a  temporary  use.      The    lips    raised  at  the    heels  are  to 

No.  9. 


336  THE  hoese's  rescue. 

fit  inside  of  heel,  so  as  to  spread  right  at  the  heels.  After  the 
horse  has  worn  these  shoes  a  few  months,  and  had  his  feet  spread, 
other  shoes  can  be  used.  There  are  many  kinds  of  shoes  to  expand 
horse's  feet.     This  shoe  I  like  the  best. 

Out  No.  9  shows  the  runover-foot,  caused  by  unequal  weig:ht  on 
the  double  heel.  One  is  higher  than  the  other,  and,  rolled  under, 
that  turns  the  toe  in  and  out.  The  best  place  to  see  how  that  is  is 
to  look  at  the  horses;  there  you  can  see  it  ten  times  better.  And 
if  you  want  to  see  how 'this  expansion  and  contraction  works,  take 
a  piece  of  stiff  paper,  strike  circle  the  size  of  the  horse's  foot,  cut 
out  a  goring-piece  runmng  to  point  in  the  center,  about  the  size  of 
the  frog,  then  close  up  the  space,  you  will  see  it  will  raise  in  the 
center  in  the  form  of  a  cone ;  let  it  down  a  small  degree,  mark 
around  the  circle;  do  that  way  several  times  until  it  comes  down 
to  a  tiat  rest;  you  can  see  the  circle  is  growhig  larger  every  time 
you  let  it  down.  This  is  the  way  this  works  on  all  feet.  It  is  all 
summed  up  in  leverage.  To  illustrate  this  a  little  more,  in  order  to 
make  all  as  clear  as  I  can,  I  will  take  one  leg  and  foot  of  the 
horse.  The  foot  is  the  base,  or  foundation,  figuratively.  We  will 
say  the  leg  is  a  column.  If  you  want  it  to  stand  perpendicular  you 
must  make  the  bottom  of  the  base  true  and  work  from  the  center. 
There  must  be  a  center  perpendicular  line  pointing  to  the  center  of 
this  earth,  and  you  must  do  your  work  so  your  column  will  balance,  if 
you  want  it  to  stand,  and  it  must  balance  all  around  the  center. 
This  is  the  way  the  dressing  on  the  bottom  of  a  horse's  foot  must  be 
done.  Remember,  you  are  working  around  a  center;  when  you  are 
paring  the  bottom  of  the  foot  of  the  horse  you  can  throw  him  off  of 
balance  all  around  the  center  of  his  foot  by  cutting  away  the  bot- 
tom of  the  base,  and  it  is  all  leverage-balancing  in  all  ways  over  a 
center  or  fulcrum  of  leverages. 

Now  I  will  try  to  convey  to  you  how  these  fulcrums  of  levers 
"  work,  and  what  shape  they  throw  the  horse  in  has  already  been 
told  many  times.  There  *is  a  horizontal  fulcrum  at  the  center  of 
the  foot  raising  and  lowering  in  the  center.  There  are  three  ful- 
crums of  levers  at  the  toe  of  the  foot,  caused  by  contraction  and 
improper  work  done  on  the  feet,  throwing  the  horse  off  of  balance 
in  many  ways,  and  there  should  be  none  to  hold  him  there.  If  all  is 
in  harmony  he  will  be  balanced  in  the  centers  all  over ;  then  he  can 
take  the  advantage  of  this  lever-power  at  will  and  balance  and  throw 
his  weight   back  and   forward,  and   in  all  ways,  around  the  great 


THE   HORSES   RESCUE. 


337 


fulcrum  of  levers  sliown  hi  cut  No.  10.  At  point  C  he  can  throw  liis 
weight  forward  and  back  of  fulcrum,  A;  and  if  he  is  balanced  ui 
the  center  he  can  turn  on  the  great  center  and  fulcrum  and  roll 
hirnseli  in  all  ways;  and,  doing  this,  he  rolls  a  great  drive- wheel 
^d  a  circle  of  them;    and  in  his  turnings  and  changing  he  rolls  a 


yj: 


,ball  of  circles  around  him.  If  he  wants  to  hold  a  load  that  is 
.crowding  him,  and  stop  it  going  down  a  hill,  he  throws  his  weight 
^l^ck  of  the  canter,  A,  by  bracing  forward  all  of  his  legs.  The  more 
..Jtjie  load  crowds  the  more  he  will  get  the  balance  of  leverage  by 
., throwing  his  weight  back  of  center.  A,  as  is  shown  in  cut  No.  2. 
.  If  lie  is  all  right  lie  must  be  so  he  can  throw  liis  weight  always 
...around  the  great  fulcrum,  C,  and  perpendicular  center-line,  B.  The 
J^vers  must  be  equal,    as  shown  in  cut    No.  10  from  center.    A,  to 

Ko.  lO. 


r>  B.      If   they  are   ho   can   rotate   (D  D    line)  both  way;    and   all 
■ways  to  lino,   E  E,    aroui.d  the  ^reat  center,"  C,      This   whole  busi- 


838  THE  horse's  rescue. 

ness  is  summed  up  in  leverage,  the  balance  around  a  center  of  lever- 
power. 

We  will  go  to  work  on  the  foot,  or  base,  again.  The  heel  is 
double.  If  you  cut  those  heels  one  lower  than  the  other,  or 
cork  or  ciake  your  shoe  of  unequal  thickness  in  any  waj',  j'ou 
will  throw  the  weight  of  the  horse  unequal  on  the  double  heel  by 
throwing  weight  past  the  center.  Throw  it  either  way,  you  set  a 
fulcrum  of  levers  to  work  at  the  toe  of  the  foot.  That  ought  not  to 
be  there.  By  constantly  throwing  and  changing  the  weight  from 
one  heel  to  the  other  past  the  center,  that  causes  the  double  heel 
to  work  up  and  down.  Those  levers  form  fulcrum  at  the  toe  of  the 
foot,  constantly  expanding  or  contracting  at  the  heel,  and  these 
levers  form  fulcrum  at  the  toe.  The}'-  act  horizontal,  the  end  of 
lever  growing  on  tlie  toe  of  foot,  the  sole  raising  in  the  center. 
There  is  another  fulcrum  of  levers,  all  working  together,  \vith  the 
one  on  the  end  of  too  forming  fulcrum  with  another  at  the  center 
of  foot,  right  over  the  coffin-joint,  one  lifting,  one  pulling  down, 
throwing  the  horse  off  his  base,  as  shown  in  cut  No.  2.  This  tip- 
back  and  pull-down  lever  has  a  double  action :  it  works  both  ways 
from  its  fulcrums;  it  tips  the  horse  over  on  iiis  nose  sometimes. 
lean  prepare  and  iron  any  horse's  feet  and  throw  liim  over  back- 
ward, and  no  power  can  make  him  stand,  and  I  will  do  it  with  a 
lever.  I  can  do  it  m  this  way:  Cup  out  the  feet,  iron  them,  take  a 
pair  of  tongs,  and  close  the  shoes  together.  That  is  done  with 
lever-power.  It  will  raise  the  sole  of  the  foot  in  the  center, 
throw  the  horse  off  of  balance,  and  hold  him.  I  can  throw  him 
over  back,  and  down.  The  Creator  of  him  cannot  raise  him.  I 
will  not  put  anything  on  him  ou\v  the  slioes  He  mnsc  lie  there 
until  I  use  the  lever  again.  This  trnie  T  expand  the  foot  (that  is 
done  with  a  lever),  let  him  go  back  on  the  base,  and  the  shoes  are 
levers  forming  fulcrums  at  the  toe.  These  principles  all  work  the 
same  on  all  feet  ami  all  horses  and  mules. 

To  close  up  this  l')ug  sjory,  I  will  tell  you  how  many  centers  and 
fulcrums  of  leverages  there  are  in  the  horse  to  bo  thrown  out  of 
center  and  in  center,  caused  by  expansion  and  contraction,  leverage, 
runover-feet,  improper  dressing  of  the  four  bases  or  foundation  of 
the  horse,  throwing  the  horse  off  his  four  bases,  throwing  him  off 
of  balance,  in  many  degrees  and  ways.  There  are  thirty-five,  one 
at  whirlbone,  stifle,  gambrel.  ankle,  pastern,  and  coffin-Joint.  These 
are  the  hind-centers  on  one    leg.      There  is  the   same   number  tor- 


THE   horse's   rescue.  889 

ward.       And    ihere    are    four  legs,   six  ou    each,  tweniy-jfour  in  all, 
one  in  the  center  at    A,   one  at  fulcrum,  E,   one  at  R.      These   are 
perpendicular-ceuter.s.       There    are    eight    horizontal-centers    to    be 
kept  in   harmony — the   center  of  the    solo  of    the    foot  at    point   of 
frog,  one  at  the  toe  of  foot ;  four  feet,  eight  in  all.     In  nearly  all  of 
these  centers  there  is  u  double  action  of  levers  both  ways,  thrown 
out  of  center   by    contraction   and   other   causes,  which  I  liave   ex- 
plained enough.     And  I  will  close  this  long  story,  and  the  result  of 
my  forty-one,  and   most  forty-two,   years'   labor   has    simmered    this 
whole   business   down  to  a  very  simple   process,   curing  all  the  ail- 
ments I  treat  on   in  this  work ;  and  that  little  process  on  the  bases 
of  the  horse  throws  the  whole  entire  machinery  ofit  of  center  and 
harmony  of  action ;  and  all  are,  by  working  on  the  feet  on  the  prin- 
ciple laid  down  in  this  work,  thrown  in  harmony  of  action,  and  no 
medicin  is  required  to  do  this  wonderful  work.     The  difficulty  these 
poor  horses  has  been  in    (I  know   not  how   long)   has   puzzled   the 
brains  of  millions  of  men  for  liundreds  of  years,  and  yet  the  process 
is  very  simple.       All    that    is   required    to    do    this   work  is  warm 
water,  a  little  cow  manure  (ox  manure  will  do  as  well),  a  reasonable 
amount  of  good  brains  and  good  judgment,  physical  force,  courage, 
and  patience.     If  there  is  any  man,  or  men,  teaching  curing  horses 
(that  are  troubled  with  the  ailments   that  I  have  mentioned  in  this 
work)  on  any  other  principles  than  are  laid  down  in  this  book,  they 
are  not  right,  and   I  know  it,  and  I   will  be   qualified  before   any 
magistrate  and   before  a  multitude  of  people   that  the  principles  to 
work  on  the   horses  to   cure   them  of  the  ailments  that  I  treat  on, 
laid  down  in   this   book,  are   all   right  if  they  are   done   right  and 
carried  out.      Now  just  think  a  little  and   you  will  see   you   have 
got  the  prevention,  and  that  is  worth  more  than  the  cure. 

Your  humble  servant, 

GERARD  DOAN. 


APPENDIX. 

I  thought  my  book  was  finished,  yet  there  are  a  few  more  truths 
I  would  like  to  publish  in  this  work.  To  begin,  I  will  say  I  leave 
you  the  key  with  which  I  unlocked  tins  great  mystery,  and  which 
cost  me  so  many  years  of  hard  labor  to  find.  This  mystery  has 
deformed  the  suffering  horse  and  held  him  so.  The  key  is  expanding 
and  mastering  the  base  of  the  horse,  his  feet.  Reader,  you  must 
begin  there  if  you  ever  unlock  this  great  science,  which  ongTit  to*' 
be  easy  for  you,  now  that  you  haive  th6  k^y. 

This  appendix  is  to  show  my  powers  of  endurance  and  to  put 
the  cap-sheaf  on  the  last  of  this  work.  While  in  New  York  super- 
intending the  getting  up  of  this  work  I  put  up  at  what  I  supposed 
to  be  a  respectable  house.  It  had  on  the  front  and  both  sid^^ 
•'Hotel."  It  turned  out  to  be  one  of  the  lowest  sinks  of  debauch- 
ery a  man  ever  stepped  in.  I  was  so  engaged  iu  my  work  that  I 
did  not  take  much  notice  of  what  was  taking  place  around  me.  I 
made  contracts  with  parties,  advanced  money,  and  set  men  at  work 
on  my  book,  and  they  were  to  draw  on  me  as  the  work  pro- 
gressed. After  my  work  was  nicely  begun,  some  parties  iu  this 
hotel  tried  to  rob  me  by  using  chloroform.  I  went  to  the  keeper  of 
this  den  for  redress,  but  could  get  no  satisfaction.  I  told  him  I 
would  expose  liis  ranch,  and  went  for  a  policeman.  He  told  me 
he  would  take  care  of  me.  I  went  with  him.  He  took  me  to  the 
station.  After  getting  me  inside,  two  at  one  time  went  in  my 
pockets  and  robbed  me  of  my  money,  pocketbook,  and  contents, 
and  not  one  word  would  they  hear  from  me.  I  offered  to  take 
them  to  D.  M.  Bennett's  printing-office  and  to  Prof.  Rawson's,  where 


APPENDIX.  341 

I  was  getting  work  done.  No  use  talking.  I  was  locked  in  a 
cell.  I  WHS  taken  out  of  there  bound,  jammed  into  a  wagon  on 
my  back;  dragged  out  of  that  and  put  in  a  hand- wagon,  and  from 
tlience  dragged  into  the  Bellevue  Hospital,  where  for  many  days 
I  was  tortured  ou  a  stretcher,  kicked  in  the  face  when  bound,  and 
treated  in  the  most  cruel  manner  possible;  pronounced  insane; 
chalked  for  the  asylum.  I  escaped,  and  reason  is  on  its  throne 
yet,  and  I  liave  had  more  powers  of  endurance  than  any  liorse 
tliat  ever  lived,  and  have  published  this  work,  fulfilled  my  contracts 
with  men  in  New  York,  and  still  I  sail  and  the  world  moves  for 
all  that.  I  am  going  to  publish  a  book  and  give  the  true  account 
of  the  brutality  I  experienced.  GERARD  DOANE. 


AGENTS   WANTED 


To  introduce  and  sell  this  work, 


"Tk  Horse's  Rescue." 


} 


Throughout  this  (or  should  be),  our 


GREAT  REPUBLIC 


I  will  set  off  territory,  towns,  counties,  and  sup- 
ply agents  with  books,  and  give  them  an 

EQUAL  CHANCE  WITH  MYSELF. 

This  will   be  a  rare  chance  to  make  some  money. 

That  is  the  only  inducement  that  I  can  hold  out.     The 

retail  price  of  this  work  will  be  $1.50.     For  further 

particulars  address 

GERARD  DOAN, 

Fleming,  Cayuga  Co.,  N.  Y. 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 
Cumnnings  Sciiool  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 
Tufts  University 
200  Westboro  Road 
North  Grafton,  MA  01536 


